Captured
by Dashita Tichou
Summary: The inevitable defeat of the megalomaniac failed. There was no way for it to work, yet everyone's hopes had ridden upon the soon to be tyrannical dictator's defeat. She was captured. There was no way out. Fem Ichigo
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Youruichi!" he screamed, jumping forward as she began to fall. Time seemed to slow as he shūnpo'd forward to catch her. Blood flowed everywhere, staining the white of the lining of his shihakusho and obi.

Aizen laughed lowly, beginning to walk slowly towards them.

"Ki..suke…" she whimpered, gold eyes fixed in place as her breathing began to slow. Ichigo jumped forward, feeling her anxieties beginning to rise to the surface as her inadequacies added up in her head.

"Go…!" She managed, bringing her shaking sword up as she passed her father to stand between Aizen and the downed pair.

"But-" Kisuke started, trying to argue even as the woman in his arms seemed to grow dimmer.

"Go!" Ichigo shouted, putting all of her doubts aside. Aizen regarded the scene coolly, smirking at the pain in each individual's face. A moment later, Urahara was gone, barely a blur left behind in his speed. The only sign he had been there was the blood staining the ground.

Isshin gaped at the woman that used to be his daughter, shocked at the strength Ichigo put forward. He realized, in that moment, that he could never be a true father to the daughter he could've once had. Ichigo had grown somehow, without his knowledge or guidance in the matter. After a moment, Isshin saw Gin in the background, sword raised slightly. Isshin leapt forward, raising Engetsu just barely enough to block the blade.

"I've got Gin," Isshin said over his shoulder, just barley loud enough for the daiko to hear. Ichigo nodded once and turned back to the chrysalis that was once Aizen.

"How interesting…" Aizen murmured, cocking his head to the side slightly, "You are clearly filled with fear, understanding the odds stacked against you, but still… Still you stand."

"I _have_ to," Ichigo responded, barely able to get her voice to work, "I know what you're going to do! I… I have to protect them!"

"You will never succeed," Aizen retorted, "There is no way that you can beat me as you are!"

"It's not that I _want_ to beat you!" Ichigo returned, blade coming to a halt in its minute motions, "I _have_ to beat you! I will defend them!" Ichigo's reatisu skyrocketed moments later as she felt the agreement of Zangetsu in her soul. Aizen raised a single eyebrow, knowing that Ichigo's reatisu was still nowhere near his own, but surprised that the daiko was still able to stand and in fact, push back.

"I _will_ win!" Ichigo shouted, moving forward to strike against the being that was once a shinigami. Aizen blocked the blow, but frowned as Ichigo moved away, preparing yet another strike.

Before Ichigo could once more strike against the being in front of her, a choked cry caught her attention. Glancing over her shoulder revealed a sight that would haunt her for some time to come.

Isshin lay, a sword through his abdomen as he knelt on the ground, blood leaking out around him as Gin stood looking down upon him.

"Oyaji!" she shouted, her anxieties rising once more in a desperate attempt of her fight-or-flight instinct to drive her to safety.

"Come, Gin," Aizen said, smiling cruelly down at the broken warrior fleeing to her father's side, "We have more work to do. If we are able to create a King's Key, it will be far more convenient to do so in the Soul Society. Kurosaki Ichigo!"

Ichigo ignored him, horror coloring her vision as she knelt down next to her father.

"I will leave you here. If I am to devour you later, here you will be easier to find." Gin fled from his position near Isshin to Aizen's side. Quickly, he brought his sword up, opening the shoji doors that led the way to the world of the dead.

Ichigo turned back to Isshin, eyes going dark and looking down. Isshin managed to start a small kido to heal the gaping wound in his side. Luckily, the sword had missed any massive internal organs and was more of a flesh wound than anything else.

After a few moments, he looked up to see Ichigo's bangs hanging over her eyes. Her hands balled up the hakama of her shihakusho and he could practically _see_ the despair filtering through her being.

"Don't," he murmured, placing one bloodied hand over her heavily calloused one, "It's not… Your fault…"

"Yes, it is," she answered shortly, tears beginning to fall from her eyes, "I can't… Protect anyone…"

"Yes, you can!" Isshin inserted, a scowl taking up a rather uncustomary appearance on his face instead of his daughter's, "You are the reason that _so_ many people are here right now!"

"But I'm also the reason that so many people _aren't_ ," Ichigo responded, tears choking her voice, "I can't… His reatisu… Was so _monstrous_ …" Isshin's eyes widened slightly at that realization.

"But Ichigo," Isshin returns, " _You_ are the reason that Orihime-chan is still alive. You are the reason that Rukia-chan is still alive. You are the reason that the Soul Society has already not fallen."

"…How did you…?"

"Kisuke has kept me informed," Isshin returned with a half-smile, "Come, you _have_ to keep going!" Ichigo looked down at her hands, clenching them into fists, a single hand on Zangetsu's hilt. Isshin stepped forward, glaring at his daughter.

"What will you do if you don't?" he demanded spreading his hands wide.

"What?" She asked, faltering slightly as she took a step after him.

"Will you sit here and cry? Cry your heart out about how you failed to protect something again?" Ichigo looked away, tears on the brink of falling.

"Think about what Aizen heading for Karakura Town in Soul Society means!" Isshin urged, faltering in his footing but not his resolve, "If you don't go, everyone you want to protect, and everyone else in Karakura Town, is gonna die at Aizen's hands!"

Faces flashed in front of Ichigo's eyes and she closed them to fight off the pain rising in her heart. After a moment, she opened them again. She looked up, eyes glimmering with something other than sorrow.

"Oyaji, open the senkaimon."

Isshin turned and raised his blade. Moments later, it pierced the fabric of reality and the pair stepped forward. However, Isshin faltered once more. Ichigo noticed and grabbed his arm supporting his weight as she began to shunpo forward.

Several long moments later, Isshin tugged on her shihakusho to get her attention.

"What?" she asked, shifting his weight across her shoulders.

"Stop," he murmured, beginning to center his reatisu on the objects tucked in his shihakusho. She knelt down, leaving him sitting. Nervously, she eyes the restrictive currents around them.

"Shouldn't we get going?" Ichigo asked, wondering at Isshin's insistence to stay despite his earlier encouragements to push her to move. For a moment Isshin was silent. Then, chords shot out from his hands, the tips digging into the restrictive currents near them. Light flooded down them. Ichigo felt Isshin's reatisu tower in the air around her for a split second before dying down into a steady stream, feeding off into non-existence as the restrictive current began to devour it.

"Usually," Isshin began, finally breaking the silence between them, "the cleaner passes through here, knocking anyone and anything that happens to take up residence out. However, it's not usually something that shinigami can fight. I don't feel it in the area and, judging from the traces of reatisu, Aizen most likely did something."

"Isn't that bad?" Ichigo asked, wondering where her father was going with this.

"Usually, but this time it works in our favor. The dangai is completely cut off from the time and space of both the living world and Soul Society; it passes about 2,000 faster. Here, you can be taught."

"Taught what?" Ichigo asked, frowning.

"The final Getsuga Tenshou."

"Why?"

"That means that we have about two thousand hours, or about three months, to train and only an hour will pass outside. In that time, you've got to get it out of him."

"What?" Ichigo asked again, still feeling confused.

"Get the secret of the Final Getsuga Tenshou out of your Zangetsu." Ichigo nodded, taking a seat and laying her zanpakuto across her lap.

"That form is called Jinzen," Isshin murmured, "A form that shinigami have used to communicate with their zanpakuto for millennia. All of your techniques until now… You've forced them out by breaking open your soul. But now… Now you must go through those millennia."

* * *

Moments later, Ichigo felt herself falling, first through the air and then into water. She flailed, feeling the water surge past her like every hope and dream that had ever soared through her heart was slipping through her fingers. Panic rose and she began attempting to swim, back to the air she had originally felt upon stepping into her world.

Something grabbed her ponytail from behind, dragging her back into her darkness. She hit the building, pain erupting around her as the cement began to give out.

"This is pathetic!" a voice called, seething with rage and oozing with disdain, "It pains me to look at you. You should at least be able to breathe!"

Bubbles streamed upwards as Ichigo took a few rapid breaths. She didn't understand how, but oxygen began flooding back into her lungs.

"Well?" they asked.

"Who… Are you?" she asked, glancing up at the figure as she climbed to her feet. "The only person who should be here is Zangetsu-Ossan!"

"That's some way to speak to the person who just taught you how to breathe!" the man snapped. Ichigo frowned, studying the black rugged coat and the hood that the figure wore. Her frown deepened as the figure raised his right arm. With a single flick downwards, the sleeve seemed to flow down. The man now held a sword.

"Tensa… Zangetsu?" Ichigo asked, surprised at the revelation. The now confirmed Tensa Zangetsu pulled down his hood, revealing a younger Zangetsu staring down at her.

"It makes sense that you wouldn't recognize me," he sneered, "You've never come here in Bankai before." He leapt forward, sword held high as he attacked his wielder.

"Zangetsu!" Ichigo protested, raising her own blade to block, "You _are_ Zangetsu… Right?"

"Wrong," he replied, face changing of one of rage to one that vaguely reminded her of Kuchiki Byakuya's, "What is your Bankai's name?"

Power flared around them, and Ichigo leapt back, just barely avoiding the worst of a Getsuga. Still though, it nicked her shoulder and sent her flying through the water. Tensa leapt after her and they began to exchange blow after blow. No matter what she did, Ichigo was pushed back. There was no way to go on the attack against this man.

"Wait, Tensa!" she called, barely avoiding referring to him as Ossan, "I didn't come here to fight!"

"No," he snarled back, rage present once more as he fought to control his emotions, "You didn't. You just want to ask me about the Saiga no Getsuga Tenshou." Ichigo felt slight surprise at the animosity he displayed towards her in that moment. She frowned slightly, not all that shocked at the fact that he could hear what was said outside. After all, he'd come to her aid several times.

Before she could comment on the fact, a blade was in front of her nose. She dodged back, just barely avoiding what would have been a fatal blow.

"What are you doing?" she spluttered, "You've helped so many times before! Why this? Why now?"

"Before it was necessary to teach you," he snarled, turning slightly from her, "Now it is necessary to _avoid_ teaching you!"

"Well," she returned, shifting her footing, "This is something that I _have_ to learn!" She leapt forward, bringing her blade up and rushing her zanpakuto. A moment later, he stood behind her, her blade in his hands.

"And what of it?" he asked, face eerily calm once more, "Why should what you want to protect concern me?" Ichigo frowned, before grabbing the front of her zanpakuto's robes. Moments later, she stood from a newly formed crater in the side of a nearby building.

"We have different goals, Ichigo!" he called, tossing her sword to the side, "What we wish to protect are vastly different things!"

The fighting continued as he rushed her. Desperately, she retrieved her sword. Several times, she went to question his statement only for him to prevent her by attacking. Finally, she let herself by thrown back by a blow and stood up.

"What do you mean?!" she demanded, finally getting angry herself.

"Which part?" he questioned as she climbed to her feet.

"You made it sound like you don't care what happens to the things I want to protect. I wanna know what you mean by it!"

"That's exactly how it is," he replied after a long moment, staring down at her. For a fleeting moment, she wished to see the yellow glasses covering the grey eyes boring into her soul. Then the indignation rose again.

"Look at this world!" Tensa shouted, gesturing to the buildings around them, "It was once filled with skyscrapers so numerous that you could not see the far horizon! Each one was representative of your hopes, dreams, and potentials…! Now it has shrank into the tiny town that you are allowing to define you! The rain.. The rain that I have hated so much has finally stopped… Only for everything to sink into the sea because you gave in! You gave in to the despair that lines your heart!"

"What…?" Ichigo tried to form a sentence, to deny the truth, but she found that she couldn't. Once more, her eyes became downcast. Tensa appeared in front of her and plunged his hand into her chest, into her very core.

"I won't leave you like this!" he shouted. Ichigo could not move or speak as… Something began to swell inside of her. "You will face your despair!" Slowly, she felt as Tensa's hand enclosed the feeling and began to _pull_. Blood rose in her lungs and she coughed, pain erupting through her entire being as white and red swirled behind Tensa into a form that caused her to freeze.

"Yo," it greeted, tossing a white Tensa Zangetsu from hand to hand as it chuckled, "Long time no see, Ichigo… Do you not recognize me?" Slowly, one white clawed hand lifted the crimson mask with white streaks to the side. Her reflection looked back at her, a cruel smirk twisting her lips.

"I-it's you…" she mumbled, trying to defeat the fear inside of her, "I thought… I thought I'd gotten rid of you!"

"I told you," the reflection laughed, moving the mask back into place, "It's like I already told you. You had to stay strong until I rose again."

"Kuso…" she cursed, "I thought I'd been rid of you back then…"

"No," the reflection laughed once more, "You poor girl, you will never understand…"

"W-What's with that weird outfit?" Ichigo asked, trying to contain some semblance of normality, "And that weird mask?"

"That's right…" Tensa murmured, "You've never seen this for yourself… This is the form you assumed to defeat Ulquiorra Schiffer." Ichigo's eyes widened, her sword dropping ever so slightly as the despair began to rise once more.

"You assumed that this form would cost you your heart…" Tensa spat, calm face disappearing, "And now instead it has cost you your resolve…"

"So, what?" Ichigo asked, sword raising once more, "I have to fight her as she is to win?"

"No," Tensa responded, frowning, "You must fight the two of us… As one…" Before Ichigo could reply, both figures vanished, blurring together.

"What… Is that?" Ichigo asked, barely able to make it out as the two began to fuse. It looked… Similar to Tensa… But had the white hair and one of the inverted eyes of the reflection.

And so the fighting began. Blow after blow, dodge after dodge, it was immensely clear that the power gap was immense. No matter what she did, she could barely make it out of the way of each blow. Cuts opened all over her body, each one closer and closer to its mark.

"Why are you still persevering?" it demanded, growling at Ichigo as she dodged yet another attack.

"Because I will _beat_ the technique out of you if I have to!" Ichigo growled back, leaping forward.

"Be gone from this world!" it growled back. With a series of attacks, it began a whirlpool, sucking Ichigo down towards the middle.

"Damnit!" Ichigo screamed, "At this rate… I won't make it!" Their faces flashed before her eyes and she felt her resolve return at once. She pushed her way out, flaring her reatisu.

"Getsuga… Tenshou!" the energy cut through the whirl pool and towards the creature that used to be both her zanpakuto and hollow respectively.

"So you do still have the will to keep trying."

"I will keep getting back up, no matter how many times you beat me down!" she growled, jumping towards the creature.

"Let's test that theory!" it snarled back, leaping towards her. Ichigo's reatisu swirled around her, causing bubbles in the water as it began to superheat.

"You've… Changed…" It murmured, eyes widening.

"I don't know why," she returned, face hardening into her typical scowl, "But they're waiting for me. And I'm _going_ to protect them, no matter what your goals are!"

"You say they're waiting for you…" it murmured.

"Yeah," she returned, "Let's get this over with." Again, the pair leaped at each other, blades poised to kill as they struck against each other. The fighting continued with occasional exchanged comments with their blows. However, her adversary continued to be adamant in its belief that she was not ready for this potential eventuality.

"Why won't you teach me?!" Ichigo screamed, avoiding yet another blow from them.

"Why won't you stop asking?!" it returned, sending yet another strike of their blade towards her. However, despite her best attempt to avoid the strike, it nicked her ponytail holder, sending orange locks flowing in every direction. She scowled, retaliating and yet the creature avoided every attempt.

Again and again, they clashed. Exhaustion seemed to come at certain times, but she ignored it and persevered. Time seemed to have no meaning whatsoever. Eventually, her hair began to cover her eyes, a true indication of how long time had passed.

Blood flowed from every joint, fading off into nonexistence.

"I told you I won't go down easily!" she shouted, "Not until I make you tell me!"

"No," it replied, "You will never learn it!"

Thoughts raced through her head as they clashed again and again and again.

 _If they really didn't want to teach me… All they had to do was disappear… And yet… All I feel from them is loneliness…_

Yet another blow sent her spiraling back and she finally understood. Without a doubt, she knew. It came at her once more, blade poised to stab through her chest. Slowly, she let her own blade slip out of her hands.

* * *

"It… Doesn't hurt…" she said moments later.

"Of course not," it replied, slowly letting go of the handle before it, "Tensa Zangetsu _is_ you. If you accept this fact, this blade will never hurt you."

"Why… are you crying?" she asked, reaching a single hand up to caress its face gently.

"Do you remember what I said at the beginning?" It asked, lowering its head and backing away, "About wanting to protect something different than what you wanted? …What I wanted to protect… Was _you_ Ichigo!"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

So... I'm not dead... I've been working on this story on and off for about a year now, so I actually have a legitament amount of this story already written. (Which means there will actually be consistent updates and not two to three years where I fall off the face of the internet.) And yes, Ichigo is a girl. The hollow is female, Zangetsu is male. Everyone else is still their original genders. Let me know what you guys think!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

She blurred into existence in front of them, her father draped over one shoulder. For a moment, no one recognized her. She sat her father down on the side before resuming her previous place.

"Is that… Ichigo?" Tatsuki asked?

"Is it just me, or is her hair longer?" Keigo added, "And could it just be the hair… Or does she look taller too?"

"…I can't… I can't feel anything…" Tatsuki murmured, panic beginning to rise, "I can feel him crushing me… But from her… Nothing…"

"Are you Kurosaki Ichigo?" Aizen intoned, a slight frown pulling at his lips.

"What do you mean?" she asked, face perfectly neutral, not unlike the face of Kuchiki Byakuya.

"If you are truly Kurosaki Ichigo… I am disappointed. I no longer sense any reatisu from you. What a pity-"

"Aizen," she interrupted, looking around briefly, "Let's move. I don't want to fight here. People will get hurt."

"I will leave the destruction of this town until after-" he began, only to be cut off as he was suddenly propelled backwards through the air.

"Impossible!" he protested, "To push me back… With such sheer force…"

"Let's get this over with, Aizen," she returned, "I will defeat you in an instant."

"I see…" Aizen murmured, "You have discarded your reatisu… And replaced it with physical strength…"

Ichigo leapt forward and so began the fight. Blow after blow was traded, beginning to reshape the terrain around them with each blow. Aizen continued to taunt her, but all the while, Ichigo remained silent.

Aizen swung, intending on shattering Ichigo's zanpakuto. However, she stopped it a moment later with a single hand. He jumped back, beginning a kido which he believed she could never escape or survive.

Ichigo merely stood there, watching as the world closed out around her. Moments later, the box shattered. Aizen watched in shock as she began to step forward. Thus the fighting began in earnest.

* * *

"Mugetsu." The sky fell, darkness descending upon all of the land, bisecting the form that was once Aizen Sosuke. Seconds stretched into hours as Ichigo felt herself expanding into the power. What was only moments later felt like days as her form re- solidified.

Mildly horrified, she watched as Aizen's back began to stitch itself together.

"He can still regenerate?" she asked, feeling the terror begin to kick in. She made to shunpo forward, but felt the world pulse around her. The bandages over her face cracked, and all at once she felt a weight disappear off of her back. It seemed to settle in her core as ice rushed into her heart. "No…!" she protested.

However, even her protest was weak as the rest of the grey bandages fell, revealing only the top of her torn shihakusho. She was lucky that she had the foresight to extend what was previously underneath of her Bankai coat. Now, instead of the medical wraps that had been there before Hueco Mundo, now it resembled almost a corset, black with a white lining peeking out the top.

Her torn coat had a thin strip running up one side, barely going over her left shoulder. Glancing down, she realized that some parts of the tail of her coat were still there, but a majority was gone.

Aizen had made his way back to his feet and was beginning to speak, but Ichigo couldn't focus enough to understand his words as her powers flared again, their dying struggles dimming her world and clouding her senses.

She noticed as other reatisu signatures began to appear in the area, but couldn't distinguish one person from the next. A flash of green appeared as she felt her knees give out. Something white appeared next to her. Vaguely, she realized that it must be Aizen. She attempted to protest when her powers began to _twist_.

* * *

Aizen moved, unsure even of which technique he was using as the shinigami began to appear en mass and grabbed a thick strand of her hair. Hefting Ichigo, he sneered as she began screaming. Finally, her reatisu began to appear again, flickering between crushing him and vanishing from his plane of existence. Somehow, he managed to remain confident. Her reatisu eventually decreased to where it was no longer causing his knees to shake.

"Urahara Kisuke!" he greeted, smile growing ever wider, "Have you come to surrender?" Urahara remained silent, taking stock of his student.

Just barely, he could feel crushing flickers of her reatisu brushing against his senses. In an instant, he realized that she must have done something drastic. He resolved to question Isshin about it later. However, as he studied the pair opposite him in small details, he realized that Ichigo was just barely clinging to consciousness. Even as he watched, she went closer to comatose.

"What have you done to her?" Urahara finally asked, looking Aizen straight in the eye.

"I did nothing," Aizen returned, "But I'll tell you what you must do. You must let me go."

"Or what?" Urahara asked, eyes narrowing.

"As an… intelligent man, surely you understand what is happening to your former student…" Aizen murmured, taunting Urahara with the suddenly silent Ichigo. As the pair watched, pieces began to flicker away from her shihakusho, altered as it was for her bankai state.

"Her soul is disintegrating," Urahara surmised, slightly shocked by how flat his tone of voice was. On the inside, he could hear Benihime screaming her crimson rage to the heavens that they were unable to do anything. Aizen felt his smile grow as he saw the pain in the other man's eyes. "Go," Urahara said shortly, "But understand, I _will_ come after you. Nothing you cherish will be safe and any power you garner will be for naught. You will _die_ and it will be the final death. Your reign will end in fire." Aizen felt chills in his soul at the killing intent in Urahara's gaze.

Glancing up, he realized that more Shinigami were closing in from a distance. Purposefully lowering his reatisu, he watched as the weaker ones began to fall to their knees.

"Your champion has failed!" he shouted gleefully, holding up the daiko for all to see, "She came at me with her best, and she has collapsed, losing any and all powers she once may have possessed! Now, I will leave you to make one last pitiful attempt to stand against me. My victory will be that much sweeter when you fall."

Aizen spun, a garganta opening behind him without the need to physically summon it anymore. With a laugh, he was gone, leaving only a few strands of Ichigo's hair to mark that they had ever been there.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

So... Fun story. Enjoy. Please leave reviews! While it's awesome to see that people must enjoy this to some extent and therefore follow/favorite this (thank you guys so much for that!), I'd really love to see what you think/why you think it!

Please let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The path through the dangai was, as it always appeared to be, bleak and empty. Idly, Aizen noticed that the path beneath his feet was a deep purple, almost black instead of the ray of light it once was. He frowned and moved faster, as if trying to outrun the significance of the darkening path, all the while tugging the unconscious girl along behind him.

Upon arriving in the moonlit sand of Hueco Mundo, Aizen set about destroying the few Shinigami left in his realm. Once the last of the vermin where destroyed, he began to search rapidly, recognizing that time was of the essence to find his scientist as Ichigo grew weaker and weaker. Recognizing vague traces of the ninth espada's reatisu, he approached the destination of what seemed to be the location of a large battle.

Upon arrival, he found vague traces of the scientist's reatisu and scraps of what appeared to be the purple tendrils from the wings of Szayel's resurreccion. With a mutter of disgust, he gathered up the remains with a self-engineered kido and moved his two prizes to the laboratories beneath Los Noches.

With no measure of surprise, he watched as the espada's fraccion scuttled out of the woodworks. They had hidden within the laboratory's depths to avoid the shinigami that had flooded the building.

They moved to attend to what was left of their master and Aizen stepped back, letting the lower ranked hollows do their work. He set Ichigo down on a lab table none too gently, taking stock of what remained of her shihakusho. Only a thin strip of its tail laid out behind her. It was evident that without assistance, it would be gone by morning.

A dark laughter bubbled out behind him along with the screams of the smaller hollows as they were consumed. The laughter turned from one of insanity to one of disbelief after several long minutes.

"Szayel!" he called, without turning.

Moments later, the man was standing by his side.

"Aizen-sama," he said graciously with a bow. He was clothed in rags, but at this moment he did not mind. He was alive. "Thank you. That captain… He… But that is of no concern at the moment," he straightened up ever so slightly, eyeing the body of the daiko upon his lab table.

"Fix her," Aizen commanded, gesturing to Ichigo's body.

"My Lord," Szayel returned cautiously, "What sent her to such a state?"

"She fused with her zanpakuto," he replied, beginning to walk from the lab, "For a few moments, she was transcendental. Then she used that power and now it is ripping her apart. Close the cracks.

"Hai," Szayel replied, bowing once more, so low that his bangs brushed against the ground.

The scientist stood after a long moment, turning to his newest patient. He smiled, glee making its way into his expression through his eyes. This girl… This girl went above and beyond so many boundaries, completely ignoring the science that should make such things impossible. He could use this opportunity to study the very foundation of her reirkyu, the production process of her reatisu. But first, he had to fix the current state of her unraveling soul. After all, there is no studying the soul without a soul to study.

As the scientist dug deep into the problem at hand, his mind could not help but to reflect on his situation. He was so lucky. So, so lucky. If anything had gone slightly different, or it had been any different drug… He would be done.

"That bastard!" he screamed, throwing part of his lab around. The anger within his soul exploded all at once. His limited reatisu gain from his fraccion fired off within the lab, and it was only a strained groan from the shinigami daiko on the lab table that kept the scientist from completely going off the deep end.

First, he would serve Aizen-sama, do what his savior asked of him. Then he would begin plotting his revenge against the shinigami taicho that dared to come into his domain and use such cheap methods against him. That man… There would never be another calm moment in his life.

* * *

Aizen strode away from the underground chambers to his throne room above. With a quick few kido to clean the debris away from previous fights, he resumed his throne to asses where to go for now.

Bringing the daiko with him… Had been a snap judgement. He was certain that if he continued to fight with Urahara Kisuke, the man would've had something up his sleeve. So taking the girl who had come so close to defeating him was the only way to proceed. He closed his eyes with a sigh as the sword handle in his hand completely disintegrated. The hogyoku had come so close to leaving his core. Only the daiko's rapid disintegration after her attack prevented the gem from choosing a new master.

However, now the gem was staying true to him and attempting to recover his fractured power base. He closed his eyes and descended to his inner world.

* * *

Her eyes snapped open as she sprang up from the glass she was laid on. The building beneath her shattered, sending her falling through the air, and soon, the water. The sea that had been evaporated by her power was now drowning her world once more.

"Zangetsu!" she screamed, the words echoing out around her. Despite the fact that she'd never called for the pair by the name, both of her spirits appeared. Their forms were wavering as they fell.

Despite the fact that the trio were falling through water instead of air, they gained speed as they plummeted. Ichigo felt terror build up as her hollow's form briefly vanished before her eyes.

"No!" she screamed, grasping at where the front of her shihakusho had been just moments ago. Just barely, she felt her fingers catch at fabric. She clutched at it, drawing it closer to her. The hollow's face appeared again, weakly and she looked surprised at the despair in Ichigo's eyes.

"Kouhi?" the hollow asked, barely able to speak.

"I can't lose you!" Ichigo returned, grabbing the front of Tensa's robes as well. As she reached out, Tensa seemed to collapse inwards and instead Ossan took his place. "Either of you!" she added, pulling them closer.

They continued falling like that for some time, Ichigo holding both of them so as to not let them fade. However, the sea quickly ended and they settled on the bottom of her inner world.

As they settled, Ichigo's breath caught in her throat. Here, at the bottom of the vast ocean that showed the true depth of her despair was the very place that started the whole thing. A resemblance of the river bridge. Here, unlike reality, the stones were stained with blood.

"Zangetsu…" she murmured, despair clogging her throat, "What… What happens now?"

The hollow portion of her soul looked away, mournfully staring at the blood stained foundation of their soul rather than attempting to answer her wielder. Ichigo looked to the older portion of her soul in response. Zangetsu stayed silent for a long moment.

"You know… That he has taken possession of you, do you not?" Mutely, Ichigo nodded, her eyes finding themselves taken by the blood stained cement.

"From here… It depends upon what he does. There are two distinct possibilities. The first… He does nothing."

"What happens if he does nothing?" Ossan's glasses shifted, the light catching in just such a way that his normally hidden eyes were visible.

"We die." The words seemed to echo within the ocean, the already dim light vanishing almost entirely.

"What… What's the second option?" The light picked up by an impossibly small amount.

"He uses us as a weapon against the Seretei." The light went out.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... Don't kill me?**

 **Let me know what you guys thought! Should I make the chapters longer, shorter? Is there anything I should change or anything you guys would like to see happen? I don't have any pairings planned as it's not really that kind of story, but if anyone really wants something like that to happen in the future, you'll have to let me know now so I can write in a mini-arc.**

 **If anyone happens to be looking for someone to commission a work with, also let me know! I'm on Deviantart under the same username!**

 **My specialties include color pencil genderbenders! I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The trio sat in the darkness for what seemed like several days before anything happened. Ichigo asked the occasional question, but for the most part remained silent. She had failed. That attack… It was meant to be the end all. Aizen was supposed to fall… Not only had the man survived, but he had taken her hostage as well. There was no way around it.

The Seretei was demolished. All of her friends were doomed if Aizen managed to succeed at this.

"I… I've failed them all…" The hollow looked up sharply as the red hot knife of self-hatred cut through their soul. "I thought… I thought that this would resolve all of the problems."

"We know, Kouhi," the hollow muttered, "We know. Trust us, we understand."

"There was nothing more you can do…" Ossan added, staring off into the desolate waters around them. "If there was, you would have done it."

"But… I'm sure there was… _Something…_ "

" _Kouhi._ " The hollow cut in sharply, drawing the former daiko's eyes to herself. "There was nothing else." Ichigo frowned, looking down and trying to let the statement come to term.

"But what if there was?" she asked, desperate to find another way.

"Ichigo…" Ossan commanded her attention, "Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate."

Instead of replying to the elder portion of her zanpakuto, Ichigo looked away. A few hundred yards lay between the group and the stain. A few years lay between the dying girl and the event. Yet it still weighed down on her. As she observed the stain, it seemed to grow. Blood seeped from the ground and raced towards them.

"Zan… Zangetsu…" Ichigo stuttered, looking between the two figures camped out on the floor of the enormous ocean of her soul alongside her, "What's… going on?" Surges of power were rippling through her, sending her consistency tumbling. She was used to feeling the drain on her soul, constantly tearing her apart as she tried desperately to hold her soul together with will power alone.

" _Ichigo_!" after a few moments, she realized that she had stopped breathing. Suddenly, the power vanished and enormous gasping breaths came in, drawing in the oxygen that she so desperately needed.

"Ichigo!" both spirits came up on either side of her, hands on each shoulder to help her regain control after that massive shock. Ossan grimaced slightly as the strain began to gather. Shiro glanced at him sharply and his burden eased ever so slightly as Shiro took a portion of whatever power was flowing through them.

"What is this?" she asked, feeling the power flow through her despite the majority of it being held by the other two inhabitants of her soul.

"Well… It feels like some kinda hollow to me," Shiro commented, frowning as the ground around them began to shift.

"Not quite though," Ossan cut in, "It has other… Traces within its' signature… _"_

"What do you-?" Then she felt it. Aside from the lonely, pain filled despair of the hollows was a primal rage, beyond the emotional range of a hollow. Their hate always fuels itself from their agony, but this… This was merely the twisted dimension of a soul that used to be but now only falls to ruin.

Around them, the ground continued to rumble and, ever so slowly, the buildings around them began to rise.

"Move **!** " Shiro screamed, grabbing the pair of them and sonidoing to the side. Where they had been sitting moments before, an enormous red stain was seeping from the pavement. It began to rise ever so slowly, taking the form of a large stone pillar, similar to those of Greek architecture. Blood red light reflected from it as it began to grow into the distance.

"What is that?" Ichigo asked, heart in her throat as her knees began to tremble from the strain.

" _Invaders._ " Ossan said solemnly. Suddenly, Ichigo felt fingers on her arm, dancing over her skin. She looked up sharply and noticed neither of her spirits' hands were near her arm.

"…Guys…" she breathed, "I think I'm-"

* * *

"-Wake up, my little bell!" a smooth voice called, reaching Ichigo's ears. Both spirits leaped towards her as she collapsed, her inner form vanishing moments later.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

She jerked up, immediately hitting her forehead against someone looming above her. The force knocked her back down onto what she figured was a lab table.

"It's time to wake up…" the voice called again, a bit farther away from her this time. Cautiously, she tried to sit up once more. Unfortunately, the brief burst of energy that allowed her to spring up in the first place drained her. She collapsed once more against the steel table, the cold almost burning her skin.

"…What do you want…?" she asked, barely able to get the words past her throat.

"It's not what _I_ want…" the voice murmured. Fabric shifted and a figure moved into her line of sight. A strange man stood before her. From the white uniform, Ichigo surmised that the man was a surviving espada.

"My name is Syzael Aporro Grantz," he introduced with a slight bow, "At the moment, the primera espada. Formerly, the octava espada. I am the one responsible for patching your soul…" Ichigo's eyes gained no spike of familiarity at the name, causing irritation to rise in Syzael.

"…Huh?" she asked, deadpanning at the scientist.

"My brother was Yylfordt Grantz," Syzael grit out, "Your companion… Abarai Renji, I believe, was the one to kill him…"

"The blonde dude?" she asked, still confused. However, before the conversation could continue, a sharp pain struck within her chest. A pained grunt forced its way out of her, shortly transforming to a moan of agony. Her eyes slammed shut, trying to keep the pain away with sensory deprivation. Vaguely, she heard the strange arrancar curse, but was too disconcerted to truly register what he was saying.

A hand grabbed her arm once more and she tried to bat it away with her other only to find steel bands had snapped into place around her wrists. She began to struggle, pushing her eyes open to try and locate the espada.

"What are you doing?!" she yelled, thrashing against the table. She tried to continue questioning him, but the pain spiked again, turning her yell of indignation into a scream of pain. Still, she kept her eyes open. The espada was off to her right with his back turned to her, but at her scream, he once again turned her direction. He held a syringe in his right hand that was filled with a light green liquid.

"Stay away from me!" she managed, trying to kick at the mad scientist. As she flailed, she noticed that her shihakusho was no longer that of her bankai coat. It was a very light gray, almost white. With this observation, yet another wave of pain tore through her. She screamed again, no longer trying to resist it at this point. Szayel took this opportunity to inject her.

Just as quickly, the pink haired espada retreated, unwilling to stand within leg range before the sedative took effect. She continued thrashing and screaming for far longer than he expected, but eventually she succumbed.

* * *

The hollow looked away from the bloodstain as the sound of something hurtling through the water reached her ears. Looking up, she saw Ichigo falling through the sky towards her at an alarmingly fast pace.

"Kouhi?" she half shouted. She leapt to her feet and jumped up to meet the now clearly unconscious former daiko. Just in time, she caught Ichigo and slowed their decent to avoid crashing into the ground. "Ossan!" she called, laying the unnaturally pale teenager down on the ground. The gravity of their strange world had changed with the de-structuring of their reatisu.

"Kouhi!" she shouted again, trying to get Ichigo's attention. The girl remained unconscious, driving the hollow's confusion and anxiety through the roof. "Yo! Ossan!" the hollow called, summoning the older portion of the zanpakuto.

He kneeled down, gently brushing the bright bangs away from the unnaturally pale forehead. "The reatisu is draining again…" he murmured, leaning away ever so slightly from the almost identical pair.

"What's going on?" the hollow asked, only vaguely following Ossan's thoughts.

"The fluctuations that summoned her to wakefulness were foreign reatisu entering into our system. Now they are draining back out twice as quickly."

"Dammit!" the hollow cursed, getting the picture, "What can we do?"

"We can try to stem the flow," Ossan returned, standing from his crouch to do just that. Moments later, he was off, trying to locate which portion of their inner world was physically linked to the reatisu deficiency.

Meanwhile, the hollow stayed with Ichigo, constantly trying to wake her.

"Kouhi!" she shouted again, shaking Ichigo's prone form. After what seemed like days, but was only a few hours, she woke.

By this point, the hollow had stopped trying to wake her and was assisting Zangetsu so Ichigo was alone.

She sat up ever so slowly, one hand going straight to cradling her aching head. For a long moment, she sat like that, not moving, but finally got to looking around where she was.

"…Damn hollow…" she muttered. She tried standing only to find her knees give out underneath of her. Determined, she tried to drag herself to the nearest building in order to stand. Halfway there, she was forced to admit defeat. She curled up in a ball to rest.

As she closed her eyes, she felt the ebb of reatisu once more. Suddenly, her exhaustion made a bit more sense. She sighed, and concentrated on regaining the force of will to hold herself together that she had held before the scientist woke her.

After several long minutes, she heard the buzz of sonido that indicated the arrival of her hollow.

"Kouhi?" The pale reflection asked, noticing that Ichigo had moved.

"Hey…" Ichigo returned, unable to muster up energy to do any more than that.

"What happened?" the hollow asked, kneeling down next to Ichigo.

"Damn prick stuck me…" Ichigo muttered, "I'm so tired…"

"You gotta stay awake, Kouhi," the hollow demanded, suddenly getting a sense that something wasn't right, "I don't know what he did, but now that you're awake, you can't go back to sleep!"

Ichigo didn't respond and the hollow started to shake her in order to wake her.

"Kouhi!"

"I'm up, I'm up…" Ichigo muttered, eyes blinking open ever so slowly, "I'm... up…"

"You gotta stay that way!" the hollow exclaimed, scowling down at Ichigo.

"It'll be fine…" Ichigo's eyes started to close again and the hollow stood, dragging Ichigo with her. However, Ichigo's knees gave out and she started to crumble again. The hollow grabbed the front of her shihakusho in order to catch her.

"You gotta stay awake, Kouhi!" the hollow demanded again.

"What's going on?" The hollow turned and saw Ossan standing on a building near them. Elegantly, he jumped from the top and floated down through the water.

"She won't stay awake!" the hollow almost growled at him.

Ichigo was fighting valiantly to stand at this point, but was feeling her awareness drift away once more. As both parts of her zanpakuto began to speak, her eyes began to drift closed.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 ***holds up chair for defense* If you kill me for not updating in a while, you won't get another update! *slowly lowers chair to peer over it***

 **So, I don't really have a good excuse for not updating. I've had the chapter written for a while, I've just gotten ridiculously busy and life got in the way. I'm sorry, not sorry, I'm a college student. Woot. Much excitement. Actually not, because I've been dealing with the stress of trying to change my major and register for summer classes at a different university. SO. MUCH. PAPERWORK. You don't even know guys, you really don't.**

 **Anyways, I'll try to have a new chapter out soon, but I kinda have to deal with finals in a few weeks, so no promises. Kk, see you guys next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Kouhi!" the hollow shouted, seeing Ichigo's eyes begin to close. After a long moment, the brown orbs peered out from behind lids that were far too pale.

"…I'm awake…" she muttered, "I promise… Just focusing…" Ossan and the hollow exchanged a glance before the older portion of the zanpakuto stepped forward. Slowly, he knelt down and placed a hand on her forehead. The hand glowed brightly for a moment while simultaneously Ossan's figure dimmed.

"What'd you do?" Shiro asked, frowning at the inflection of reatisu currently surrounding Ichigo.

"I will be weaker, but I gave back a portion of the reirkyou she uses to maintain my form here. It should help her to maintain her own individual awareness. I fear she may succumb to this strange sedation elsewise.

"…Would it help if I were to do that or hurt her?" Ossan frowned for a moment, concentrating and analyzing the reatisu surrounding the trio and throughout the inner world.

"I think for now it would be better if you amassed your strength. The abundance of hollow reatisu in her system as of now would suggest that they are trying to break down the barrier of her soul by overpowering one side."

"But I'm not just-"

"No, but you are primarily." Shiro sighed for a long moment and turned away, crossing her arms.

"Fine." Ossan eyed the albino spirit warily at her flickering reatisu.

"In this instance… I did not mean offense. Your strength will be required."

"I know," Shiro growled, "It just sucks."

"What…are you talking about…?" At that point, the two spirits looked down to see Ichigo pushing herself up off of the concrete. Ossan's reirkyou had evidently helped a great deal. She no longer seemed as pale and was able to sit up as her arms stopped shaking.

Ossan looked at Shiro for a moment raising a single eyebrow at his albino counterpoint. She shrugged and gestured for him to leave.

"Shiro?" Ichigo asked, watching as Ossan flickered away before vanishing from sight completely.

"Hey, Kouhi…" Shiro greets awkwardly, coming forward to sit next to Ichigo.

"What were you… talking about?" she asked again, pushing a lock of vibrant orange hair behind one ear.

"It's nothing." Shiro dismissed immediately, turning her eyes from Ichigo to look back at the drowning world.

"No… It's not," Ichigo retorted, leaning heavily against Shiro's side, "Tell me." Shiro glanced down at Ichigo, gold on black eyes widening ever so slightly before letting out a sigh.

"So demanding, Kouhi," Shiro mocked quietly, "Heh… Guess it's just a reminder that you have that title for a reason…"

"Damn right," Ichigo cut in, "Quit stalling." Shiro took another deep breath and thought for a moment, trying to figure out how exactly she needed to start her tale.

"Do you… Don't you think it's weird that your dad, a shinigami, ended up with a human as his wife?"

"Well… Yeah…" Ichigo muttered, feeling strength return to her, little by little, "But I mean… We only just found out that Goat-chin was a shinigami in the first place…"

"But you suspected. You looked so much like that Shiba gal that people thought you'd just died your hair."

"I mean, it makes sense that we're family."

"Well, your dad's secret isn't the only one that your parents were keeping from you." Ichigo looked side long at her hollow at that point.

"What do you mean?"

"…Before… Before I was a part of you, here… I used to be… Something else." Shiro paused for a moment, eyes staring mournfully out in the distance.

"The memories are fuzzy… But… I think I remember… Darkness, pain… And despair. Then I remember a night, very similar to the one when Mom died… It was raining…And… I was free, all on my own, not like we are now.

"There was a soul that seemed so strong… It was… Well, it seemed like a feast, so I went after it, like any hollow would. Thinking back on it now, I know that it was a Quincy, although at the time I had no idea what that meant. She lured me in… I struck, but… She put an arrow through my head.

"The next thing I can remember is I'm inside of her soul, about to pull her in and reclaim the body as my own. Then… a bright light invaded and a shinigami came. He took her away and I was sealed away until I bonded with your forming soul years later."

"That… actually makes a lot of sense," Ichigo responded from Shiro's lap. "Aizen claimed that he was responsible for my birth, so… He must've sent you lose all those years ago on Mom… I don't know why I'm surprised that she was a Quincy… Dad never would've settled for someone 'normal' with as crazy as the old Bastard is. But… How did we split again if our souls had been bonded together?"

"Well," Shiro responded, surprised at how well Ichigo responded to her half-forgotten past. She'd expected it to put a wedge between the two of them as she'd technically almost killed Masaki. "This is kinda guesswork, but I think our soul was originally balanced. When Grandfisher killed Mom… It stirred something in me, giving me a bit of awareness of the world around me again. I mean, the Shattered Shaft pushed me a little farther, but I think… I think the hollow side of me would've consumed you long before that. Honestly, it was the shinigami chick shoving her zanpakuto through your chest that saved you. If we'd been left… Oh, maybe another day or two? You'd've been eaten from the inside out."

At this, Ichigo pulled away from Shiro, able to sit up on her own again. Shiro half smiled at her, happy she seemed to be a little more awake. However, when Ichigo looked away and didn't respond, the half smile turned into a frown.

"Kouhi?" Shiro asked, trying to get Ichigo's eyes back towards her. If the admission of almost killing Mom hadn't driven her away, then she didn't want this truth to tear them apart once more, in their case back to the beginning was horrifying. "Ichigo!" Shiro said sharply, causing the orangette's eyes to snap back to her. After a moment, the brown eyes dropped down to the concrete.

"I… There were razor blades in my desk drawer." Ichigo whispered, keeping her eyes lowered. "They… They weren't for a project." Shiro nods, confirming the progression of her strength at that time with Ichigo's mental state.

"So… I actually have something to tell you…" Shiro admitted after a long silence, "So… You know how zanpakutos are a part of their wielder's soul, right?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said, "Why?"

"Well… Some zanpakuto are passed through the generations or reincarnations of the soul. Others… Others are not. Sometimes it is the genes of the body which influence the soul. Outside influences can also change the way that the zanpakuto forms.

"Sometimes… The soul splits and that changed part of it can become the zanpakuto."

"What… What are you saying?" Ichigo asked, eyes impossibly wide.

"I might not be the zanpakuto you wielded in past lives, but…"

"You're Zangetsu…" Ichigo breathed out. At that moment, Ossan reappeared from his attempts to fix the surrounding city.

"Ossan…" Ichigo said, her throat suddenly clogging up with fear for the answer, "Who are you?"

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE**

 **Hey guys, sorry that it's been a while. But hey, the truth of Ichigo's soul has been revealed! What will happen next? Who is Ossan really?! What did the espada do to Ichigo? Find out next time!**

 **(Please review...)**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"What is the moon to the wolf that longs to reach it?" Ossan answered her quietly, "He knows that the moon is something far out of reach, yet still longs to understand it. The moon will never be able to explain itself to something that cannot comprehend its true self."

Ichigo frowned, eyes narrowing at the man she'd thought to be her zanpakuto for so long already. She had no idea what he meant by that, and it certainly didn't answer her question.

"Who are you?" she repeated again, slowly rising to her feet. Shiro's eyebrows briefly flicked up as Ichigo stood, but made no comment on it. All three beings could feel the accumulating foreign reirkyou in the soul, and as a result of that, Ichigo began to glow a dark red.

"Ichigo," Ossan said, attempting to get her to slow down and think, "I have stood by your side since the very formation of your life, long before you were born. Although the moon cannot help the wolf, it cannot hurt it either. Instead, it gives the wolf a way to understand the passing of time, and therefore, the wolf will learn to befriend the moon in time." Ichigo frowned a little deeper, but her reatisu kicked wild patterns around her.

"The wolf may watch the moon," Ichigo answered, trying her best to understand, "But when all the wolf has known is the moon blocking the sun, it's hard to trust as freely once the wolf meets the sun and watches the moon." Ossan studied her for a long moment before giving a short nod.

"Abandon your fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop. You'll age if you pull back. You'll die if you hesitate." The words from long ago spilled out of Ichigo's mouth, their meaning completely different from all those months ago. Ossan simply nodded before disappearing once more. Shiro snorted and rolled her eyes as he went.

" _Coward_ ," she muttered. Her comment went unheard. Shiro turned back to Ichigo, glancing her up and down. She frowned, not quite liking what she saw. The weight on Ichigo's shoulders had seemed to build up to the point where it was going to crush her.

" ** _Kouhi_ ,**" Shiro said, only have one phrase in mind to help calm her, " ** _Remember that the horse helps to carry some of the baggage._** "

Ichigo turned and looked at her reflection, eyes burning with anguish. Without saying a word, she walked off by herself, leaving the bloodstain behind to go and process everything she'd just learned.

Shiro frowned as the world around them went darker, a storm waiting to enthrall them all within its catch. Kouhi was going to spend far too much time on this. Their soul had never been one for standing by. They had always been one for action, but in this case… In this case there was nothing they could do. Shiro growled to herself and focused back on the bloodstain.

Ichigo walked around what was once the side of her inner world. Wolves… wolves and murderers ran around in her head as she walked. So much had been revealed and yet… So much was still hiding. She slammed her fist into the side of a building, surprised as she cut her hand on the sharp bricks.

"Guess this shouldn't shock me…" she muttered, "After all… Everything else is betraying me anyways…" She sighed and flopped down against the building. Her strength seemed to be leaving her behind once more as she got dizzier and dizzier. "I shouldn't… Why…" The rain finally began to set everything tumbling around her. The water sent waves flooding in every direction, knocking her over where she laid.

She tried to sit up, but found herself unable to move as a voice began whispering in her ear once more.

" _…Wake up, Little Bell…_ "

Suddenly, instead of being laid out across concrete, she was strapped down to a metal table, unable to move much.

"I see you've decided to rejoin us…" a voice whispered. She growled and jerked around as best she could to keep the crazed scientist away from her. "No need to worry," he said, a little louder this time, "I'm going to stay put right over here." She whipped her eyes around to latch onto the arrancar.

This time, he was standing quite far from her, causing her distrust and dismay at the situation to rise.

"What do you want from me?" she snapped, some strength returning to her.

"It's not what _I_ want, my little bell…" Syzael mused aloud, "It is… It is what Aizen-sama wishes for you that is important."

"And what is it that he 'wishes'?!" she demanded, reatisu attempting to spit fire around her in response to her anger. Instead of the firey inferno she'd caused many times before, it crackled pathetically, pressing on nothing in its weakness.

Syzael frowned somewhat as he observed the… Well, to be honest he wasn't sure what to call her. She was no longer a shinigami-daiko… And he could hardly call her a regular konpaku either… She was… Well, she was a mix of almost everything. As he watched, blue alternated with red and black around her figure in her rage. However, it was nothing compared to what it had been in the past.

"What is it?!" Ichigo demanded again, louder, forcing her strained reatisu even higher. Syzael attempted to pacify her, eyes lingering on displays set up around the lab.

"It is not for you to know," he answered her, "Aizen-sama's plans are his own."

"So you don't even know," she responded hotly, "You're just his lap dog, sniveling at his feet as he stands over you."

"Watch your tongue, girl!" he shouted, pulling a lever. Immediately, Ichigo's bravado drained away and she began to pale significantly. Where her shihakusho had been ever so slightly darkening, it quickly began fading, pieces fading away into nonexistence around her sleeves and her pants. After a long moment of satisfaction, Syzael put the lever back to normal.

"Just remember that your fate is in my hands," Syzael said, threatening her silently. Ichigo couldn't find the strength to contradict him in that moment, only able to lay there panting on the table. Ever so slowly, the shihakusho began to regain its color, shade by shade. Syzael, thinking that she was unable to fight back at that point, began to make his way forward with a syringe to take a blood sample.

As he got closer, Ichigo's eyes regained their focus and shifted to gold. Just before the needle stuck her skin, she kicked, hard. Syzael went flying across his own lab, smashing into a set of tanks on the opposite side.

" _ **I suggest you stay away from Kouhi…** " _Shiro warbled, bending back the metal restraints holding them down, " _ **Even if your precious Aizen-sama wants you to corrupt her… You won't make it happen. Instead… You'll just make me angry** …"_

Syzael sat up, rubbing his head. With slight shock, he looked at his hand and found blood staining his palm. He stood up slowly, eyes trained on his hand.

"My, my…" he murmured, taking a few steps forward, "You deserve to be disciplined for that…" After a long moment, he took his eyes off of the blood to see Shiro still crouched on the table. "But first… Who are you? Are you the inner hollow I've seen cause so many problems for this girl?" Syzael's eyes were alight with scientific curiosity and a burning desire for violent revenge, a combination that Shiro instinctively disliked. However, before she could do anything, there was a tug from within. Ichigo's body collapsed back down onto the table.

"Not again!" was the last thing Shiro heard before she was pulled back into their inner world.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **Sorry guys... I know that it's been a while. I've been struggling to be motivated much lately, and I've had some issues with random anxiety. If nothing else, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Shiro fell down into their inner world head-first. Where before there had been some air before the plunge into the sea below, now there was nothing. She felt the vacuum of space pressing down on her, everything squeezed up against her until she felt like she was going to pop. Then the sea below opened and swallowed her up. The terrible feeling of fading happened again, causing her to question if she would even exist by the end of the fall.

"Why?!" she screamed, knowing that no one would answer her. Every time she tried to interfere, to help Kouhi, she only ever made things worse. While Kouhi was weak, she could at least admit it. And Shiro... Shiro couldn't. It was impossible, against her very nature. And yet... It was up to her to give guidance.

The floor of the sunken city rose up to meet her and she did nothing to stop the impact. She crashed into the ocean floor. Smoke billowed up around her and debris from the crater flew into the air. For a long moment, she merely laid there. Was there any point in getting back up?

...A second after that thought entered into Shiro's mind, she leaped to her feet, snarling.

"Kouhi!" she called, challenging her wielder. There was no response. Angry and restless, Shiro paced the circumference of her crater. Finally having enough, she sonio'd to the last place she knew Ossan to be.

"Kouhi!" she called again, frustration rising. She kept going, flicking in and out of view as she went, searching for where Ichigo lay, presumably inert at that point in time.

"ICHIGO!" Shiro finally roared, stopping on what was probably the tallest building present and observing downwards, searching for her wielder amidst the rubble and squalor of the place. Finally, a small flicker of Ichigo's reatisu hit the air, alerting Shiro to where she was just waking up. She made to shunpo off, but another hand stopped her. She turned, growling, to see Ossan standing there, his gaze piercing her through those damnable amber-gold glasses.

"Do you not feel it?" he questioned, eyes only intensifying the longer he stared at her.

"Feel what?!" she snarled, fighting his grip.

"Calm yourself," he returned, tone sharp, "Do you not feel the candor of what you have become?"

Instead of replying in words, Shiro growled and pounced forward, frenzy in her eyes, teeth aiming for his neck.

"Shiro!" Ichigo yelled, finally arriving at the scene. Shiro was past words, merely bounding forward time and time again like a frenzied animal. Finally, Ossan's defense slipped and Shiro went for blood.

Ichigo was suddenly in front of the wild spirit, blocking her attempt for blood and knocking her out all in one. As Shiro dropped, Ichigo stumbled, but Ossan managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

"What... What's wrong?" Ichigo asked, staring at the spirit.

"Do you not feel it?" Ossan asked once more, cloak billowing in the current around them. The water had darkened around them. "They are slowly poisoning us from the outside in. The reatisu is most likely from a foreign arrancar. It is slowly driving her to insanity."

"Can we not do anything about it?" Ichigo asked, eyes lingering on Shiro's prone form.

"There is one thing we can do, Ichigo. But..." he trailed off until Ichigo looked up, her eyes meeting his own, "I fear that you are not ready." Ichigo pulled away, standing tall despite the pain and fatigue still flooding through her in waves.

"I just about lost you once and I'm in danger of losing you even now. I will do whatever it takes." Ossan stare down at her, the minimal light reflecting off of his glasses so that only one eye was visible. For a terrible moment, Ichigo was terrified that he would simply disappear into the inky darkness encroaching all around them.

"The sealed King of the Quincy. Over 900 years, he shall recover his heartbeat. Over 90 years, he shall recover his intellect. Over 9 years, he shall recover his power. And over nine days, he shall recover the world. These nine days will be the end of this world." As Ossan spoke images of fire and darkness covered the water around them, floating in and out of view.

"When your mother died, all those years ago... It was not the fault of the hollow, Grand Fisher. Instead, it was the fault of the man I am an image of. ...Ywach." Images of the war against the Quincy floated around the pair now, showing the horrible things that both shinigami and quincy had done alike.

"His majesty seeks revenge on all those who have been wronged from his race, but not because he cares for those people."

"What are you talking about, Ossan?" Ichigo asked, unwilling to believe what her instincts were telling her and indeed what the man she'd always thought her zanpakuto was trying to tell her.

"At this moment we stand at a precipice, Ichigo..." Ossan said, his voice swirling in the darkness as he vanished from in front of her. "You can either chose to accept who you are... Or you can reject me and allow Aizen to overcome your innermost self..."

The darkness came closer yet, inching forward and hiding all from view. Shiro was swallowed up where she lay and the darkness was so complete that Ichigo couldn't see the white alabaster of her skin or hair from where she stood mere feet away.

"No..." Ichigo whispered, "No... I can't..." Her knees buckled as the darkness came closer yet, covering almost all of her. Suddenly, a blue light began to glow from deep within her, spreading out into a pattern off veins all over her arms, legs, torso... And finally her face.

"NO!" she screamed, suddenly leaping to feet and forcing the darkness back, keeping it from encroaching upon her and forcing it back to the far corners of her inner world. Shiro was revealed exactly where she had been and when Ichigo fell to her kneed, panting, Ossan emerge from the darkness with what seemed to be a proud tilt to his lips.

"Speak," he commanded, "And know what you are."

"I... I'm the daughter of Kurosaki Isshin ad Kurosaki Masaki. I'm part living shinigami... But I'm also part Quincy." Ichigo found the strength to stand once more and made her way over to her hollow. She acted instinctively, placing a hand on Shiro's forehead and letting the blue shine once more from where she knelt.

Ossan smiled ever so slightly as Ichigo slumped over, exhausted, but frowned once more when the world rumbled. Looking up, he saw the sun re-emerge, almost recreate itself from nothing. It was weak, but at least it was there. Turning back to the rumbling, he disappeared from view, attempting to prevent sealed cracks from reopening. They couldn't afford to lose any more power.

When Ichigo woke up again, she noticed that she wasn't where she had been before. She sat up, noticing that she had been leaning against something. Someone actually. Shiro sat there, watching her with golden eyes. As soon as brown met gold, the gold flicked away to stare in another direction.

"Hey..." Ichigo started awkwardly. Shiro said nothing in response for a long time, instead staring out at the far horizon. At that point, Ichigo realized that they were above the sea level.

"I'm sorry." Shiro said abruptly, with no warning. Ichigo thought that she had whiplash from how fast her head spun around. Still, Shio wouldn't meet her gaze.

"It's not your fault..." Ichigo said slowly, trying to figure out where this was going.

"I was heading for you when he stopped me," Shiro admitted, "And all I remember after that was the song of battle in my blood."

"..." Ichigo wasn't sure how to respond, wondering how to explain what happened after that.

"He was here when I woke up," Shiro continued, not giving Ichigo a chance to think over what was happening. "He... said that he told you."

"...Yeah..." Ichigo looked down at her fingers and frowned, trying to call forth the vein pattern on her skin one again. Her veins seemed to go a touch lighter, but that was about it.

"It is not something that is easy to maintain," Ossan said, startling Ichigo and causing her to spin around quickly once again. "Instead, it is something that you must train, carefully and with much dedication." Ichigo attempted to reply, but instead something yanked and she was pulled out of her inner world.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... I'm actually updating. My family and I are on vacation, so I've been in a car for the last two days. Also I wrote this on a tablet with a shitty keyboard, so please forgive any typos. Ja ne!**

 **9/7/2016 Update: Edits to typos caused by shitty keyboards. Finally back home now and working on the next chapter!**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"And here you are again, my little bell..." Ichigo tried to sit up but once again found herself secured down to the table.

"What do you want _this_ time?" she snarled, glaring at him when she found him a moment later.

"Nothing much..." he said snidely, standing at a somewhat distant computer, fingers typing away.

"You obviously want _something_!" she growled, tinges of pain from the last encounter with him running up her spine.

"I merely wish to... Observe you..." Szayel reached for something just out of her field of view and she tensed, preparing for the pain to come once again. However, to her surprise, it was a tray of food. He placed it on the counter in front of him and pressed a button. To her surprise, once again, the counter became a conveyer belt and the straps across her chest and arms retracted back into the table.

"Eat." he commanded, turning back to his computer. Ichigo stared at the food for a long time.

 _`Guys?'_ she asked internally, ` _What do you think?'_

 _`I would not trust the man, but...'_

 _ **It smells funny!'**_ Shiro interrupted. Ichigo took cues from both of her spirits and turned away from the plate.

"No," she said firmly.

Szayel looked at her and raised a single pink eyebrow as far as it would go. After a long moment, he sighed.

"I was hoping that we could do this... the easy way..." he murmured, reaching again for something out of Ichigo's sight, "After all... Aizen-sama does not like it when I hurt his..." He looked Ichigo up and down, searching for the right word, "...pet." He smiled as she growled at him once more. Ichigo tensed, but to her surprise, instead of the searing pain returning once more, a door slid open.

"Aizen-sama has decided to grace us with his presence to... convince you."

And then footsteps sounded in the room and in walked Aizen, once more dressed in white with long brown hair, pre butterfly-esque form once more. She couldn't help the response. Her pupils dilated in fear. This man… He was able to survive that power and still walk alone. Although it wasn't as it had been before, she could still feel his monstrous reatisu sweeping over her, decimating her in its path as though she were merely an afterthought.

"It is good to see you awake…" he murmured, smiling down at her with the expression that had been donned for most of his stint as a captain. She growled in answer, doing her best to not let her fear control her. "Does your… failure bother you this much?" Ichigo stiffened in response to his question and turned her head to the side, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of seeing the impact his words had on her.

 ** _'_** ** _Beat him in, Kouhi!_** ' her hollow hollered out, doing her best to distract the undisputed ruler of their soul, **_'You can still headbutt him a new one!_** ' Mentally, Ichigo shook her head. Unbeknownst to her, static thunder and lightning set her inner world rumbling, yet no rain fell.

"What do you want, Aizen?" she spat out, eyes still turned away from him.

"Does it come as a surprise that I wish to visit my champion?" he practically purred the question with how self-satisfied he seemed. She kept quiet, refusing to answer. If Tatsuki were here, Ichigo was sure that the raven haired girl would be wearing that damn half-smirk showing how proud she was of Ichigo's sass to this day. Another blow to her heart as Ichigo realized she had no idea if she would see her oldest friend, or really any of her friends, ever again.

Ichigo jumped as a cold hand caressed the side of her face. Instinctively, she reacted with as strong of a kick as she could muster, temporarily forgetting about the steel bindings that held her in place. She merely bruised her shin against the hard metals. "Let go of me!" she growled, determining that it was the pink haired freak that held her and not Aizen.

"I'm merely trying to get you the sustenance your body requires, girl." In response to Syzael's condescending answer, she spat at him. Her spit her his glasses and he jerked back as if the harmless fluid had been searing lava. "Brat!" he cried. He would've gone after her, but Aizen's presence held him back. It wouldn't do to disobey the man directly in front of him after all. Syzael would find a subtler way of getting his revenge. Aizen stepped forward, dismissing his thoughts as he came closer to the former shinigami-daiko.

"You would do well to show gratitude, Kurosaki Ichigo…" Aizen spoke, stepping closer yet. With each step closer, Ichigo could feel his reatisu growing heavier. Despite that, she remained defiant. She finally turned her gaze back onto him and glared as hard as she could.

"I owe you nothing!" she spat on him as she'd done to his underling moments ago. However, Aizen saw it coming this time and struck against her. Her head reeled and for a moment, Ichigo thanked her lucky stars that it was still attached to the rest of her.

"Do you know exactly how long it is that you've been here, hovering on the brink of eradication?" Aizen asked suddenly, staring straight at her, willing her to react in the way he was expecting. He wasn't disappointed. She stiffened in place and her eyes stayed far away from his.

"You most likely think you've been here for a few days, a week at most. Am I correct?" her silence was answer enough. He was dead on, like always. "You've been here for nearly a month."

The statement sent her reeling worse than the strike to her head a few moments ago. A month? She'd been here a month?! Her thoughts were sent scrambling, trying to recover any amount of information to either prove or disprove his words. Nothing she could think of was enough. She'd known for a long time now that the flow of time in her inner world was jarred to the rest of her world. She knew that it could be slowed down… But could it also be sped up? She didn't know and it was driving her crazy.

"No!" she screamed, finally expressing her dissatisfaction with the situation at hand. Her reatisu, what had been pumped into her at any rate, exploded around her. Its flimsy nature didn't dare to question her on this and she could feel the metal bindings begin to give way.

Before she could act on this information, Syzael was upon her once more with the dreaded needle. "NO!" she screamed louder and began thrashing against the bindings in hopes of finding her way out sooner. However, the needle found its purchase in her shoulder just as her legs broke free. She kicked as hard as she could and completely pulled her way off of the table.

She began attacking Syzael with all her might and it was all the espada could do to withstand her blows. Luckily for him, unluckily for her, she went down a few moments later; the sedative kicked in and she lost consciousness quickly.

"Let me know when she awakens again." Aizen turned and left the lab, leaving him to clean the room and re-restrain the girl before her conditions changed.

 _ **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**_

 **Hey guys... So... I'm not dead? That's a good thing. And Bleach finally ended... I'm a little dead inside. (In my defense, I was behind on the manga and was working full time over the summer while attending school. Obviously, I'm caught up now.)**

 **So I'm working on the next chapter already and I want to try and have it out in the next two weeks. Please let me know what you think, I really love writing this story, but I'd like to hear some feedback! Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 _Ichigo…_

 _ **Ichigo!**_

 ** _-ICHIGO!_**

 _-ICHIGO!_

Ichigo jolted awake, unable to shake the fear she woke shrouded in. Her heart thundered in her chest and even trying to draw breath hurt. What happened? She struggled to think of what could've caused this pain when everything came flashing back. Aizen. Of course it had been Aizen. How could it have been anything else?

"Ichigo?" Slowly, Ichigo forced her eyes open, looking up into dark eyes partially shaded by amber lenses.

"Ossan…" she forced out, her vocal chords screaming indignantly at the harsh abuse. Relief clearly colored the other man's features and he stepped aside to reveal her albino reflection with nearly the hollow expression. For her hollow to openly be showing such worry, her condition must have been rather severe.

"It is alright if you cannot answer us now, Ichigo," Ossan said, trying to get her to relax quickly, afraid she would hurt herself further if she was strained, even by speaking with them.

" ** _I'm just glad you didn't croak,_** " Shiro said, feigning indifference while her golden eyes followed every half-thought twitch from her colored counterpart. No one called her on it, and she thanked her lucky stars for that fact.

"Wha… What happened to…" Ichigo was unable to get the words past her throat. While she remembered that Aizen had come in to confront her, she couldn't remember why everything hurt so much. Looking around, just from the corners of her eyes, her inner world seemed more desolate than before. Some of the buildings appeared to be withering away into the tree like structures of Hueco Mundo.

"You reacted with the little reatisu you had within you," Ossan said, stating the obvious before moving on to the less obvious, "The pathways had been burned out by the Saiga no Getsuga Tensho; therefore using them caused backlash onto the most obvious place. Your inner world."

 ** _"_** ** _Nice move, Kouhi,_** " Shiro bit out, a little harsher than she originally meant, **_"Now it's gonna be even more of a miracle before we get outta here…_** " Ichigo learned two things from Shiro's statement. One, the albino did blame her for all that had happened, at least to an extent, and two, Shiro thought they were still gonna get out.

"Thanks…" Ichigo managed. Ignoring that Ossan had told her to basically sit tight for a bit, Ichigo forced herself up onto her forearms and rolled over. Very slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position, leaning heavily against what remained of a building behind her.

"How are the cracks looking?" Although sitting up should've sapped her energy, Ichigo believed with all her heart that she could not just sit there.

"They are beginning to shrink," Ossan reported, sharply watching his mistress.

"And what about the reatisu they're pouring in?" Shiro snorted slightly.

" ** _The idiots haven't stopped. If anything, they've increased its rate._** "

"She is correct," Ossan confirmed.

"…Good." Ichigo returned, finally feeling a smirk stealing her lips. "Let them think I'm weak, that I can't handle what they throw at me; I'm not done yet." Overhead, the clouds began to part, little by little.

"Has it really been a month?" Both parts of the zanpakuto looked down guiltily, telling her they were hiding something. She simply stared them down, the smirk simmering into a frown. When she received no immediate answer, she scowled.

"It is possible," Ossan began to answer, staring in any direction except for her eyes, "There are times where the helpful time distortion instead robs us of our senses. The role reatisu plays in its manipulations is deep reaching." So, in other words, unless she had secured enough reatisu for herself and could actually use it, she was stuck with her inner world going whatever pace it wanted.

" ** _You've gone through a lot, Kouhi,"_** Shiro interrupted, " ** _If your nakama was here, Aizen would dangle it in front of you._** " Ichigo was reminded of something she hadn't even thought of yet. Her friends would try to make a rescue attempt. Her heart caught and the clouds overhead soured in disposition.

"They're not stupid enough to go after a lost cause." Ossan and Shiro exchanged glances, gawking at each other over Ichigo's head.

" ** _If you were a lost cause, none of us would be here._** " Ichigo was taken aback by Shiro's abrupt statement.

"What?" she asked, certain her ears were deceiving her.

" ** _If you were a lost cause, none of us would be here_** ," Shiro said again, pissed she had to repeat herself to her dunderheaded other side, " ** _That bastard would've used up Karakura to make the King's Key and you'd be just another soul in the casualties. You might not be powerful right now, but you will be. After all, what good is a horse without someone to command it?"_** The reference to the old conversation brought Ichigo back together.

There was a way…

" _Wake up, Little Bell…"_ that annoying voice rang through her mind once again and instead of obeying the sharp tug to consciousness, she fought it.

"Keep talking to me guys," she begged, facing the two spirits that made up her zanpakuto.

"Your friends will develop a strategy," Ossan assured her, worried by the strain showing on his wielder's face, "This time, the whole Gotei 13 should come after you; they saw you taken, there will be no doubts as to your innocence."

" ** _Yeah, and those dumbasses you call friends would go through hell itself to get to you._** " The ghost of a smile flickered onto Ichigo's face for a fraction of a second before pain radiated through her shoulder. Blood began to pour out of the wound and Ichigo dropped to the ground before either portion of her soul could catch her.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **Hey guys, sorry I'm a day later than I meant to be. I actually managed to do a crap ton of writing this week, so I actually have the next few chapters done already. As a result, I'm going to try to go on more of a regular update schedule. I will try to update at minimum every Thursday and if I have an abnormally active week, I'll try to start posting on Tuesdays as well. I'd really like to hear some feedback guys... I don't wanna be one of those authors who keeps going on and on about reviews, but even 'Hey, that was cool' would be nice to see. I've been writing this story for over a year, even if I've only been posting on it since January...**

 **So, once or twice a week?**

 **Also, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has favorited or followed this story so far, including:**

 _ **Aliahra, Armed Truth, Anarchy Jones, BellaSara2012, Black-Eyed Envy, bladenite383, Bloody Moon Mist, bouff2, Crimson Dragon Devil, Darkaggie, dragonlord9977, F.A.M.4Life, gaara king of the sand, Harehime, herseybarrules, hlf1495, JustineLacus, Kittycatkittycat, LightningCard, Melancholicmelons, Mischievously, NamikazeNia, NaZa-Fan x Konchichi, movielover312, Noctua Lucidum, PedroJLife, Psycho Nocturnal, RainbowDashAttackOut, Saigo-Getsuga52, Shadow 4146, Shadow Phoenix 16, Snipern0sniping, Soleil-Angel, SpunkyHellKitty, StarGoldFang, Strange1331, Warhawk11, Waynez0rz, WhiteW12-0, WinglessEagle, WolfBaneFlower, XxxBellaBellaxxX, courtney1, demonic hellfire, freechimchangas, goodwin761, hardoraku, rainbowfiredrake, ranma-tomoe, sareen momo, strawberry-rose98, theskythatshinesbright, Yusuke Kurosaki**_ **(If I misspelled anyone's username, I apologize; I had to retype them all. I also apologize if I missed anyone in this list...)**

 **-as well as the few reviewers I had in the earlier chapters. I'm really enjoying writing this story and I already know how it ends, I've written a few scenes here and there all the way to the ending. Any opinions on how this is going or what you'd like to see in the story would be really nice! I hope I hear from you guys soon, I'll have the next chapter up on Tuesday! Bye guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"- _Ichigo!"_

 _"_ _-_ _ **Ichigo!**_ "

Ichigo jerked awake once more, dizzy from disorientation. She was unable to keep her knees from buckling underneath of her and she started to fall, but something yanked her shoulders back, keeping her hanging in agonizing place. Despite the pain, her eyes darted from place to place, trying to observe and analyze as much as they could before something could interrupt her.

"So it does work…" a bemused voice reached her ears. She forced her eyes up onto the face of Aizen Sosuke once again. "I apologize for my doubt of your abilities, Syzael."

"It is nothing Aizen-sama, merely a token of my appreciation for you to allow me to study such an interesting specimen."

"Indeed." Syzael was standing behind a set of bars and Ichigo furrowed her brows while staring around herself. She was in a cell. The two men behind her had placed her in a jail cell. Glancing up, she realized the pain in her shoulders was from hanging from stocks. She shifted and looked towards her shoulder and saw a sword impaled there.

"…Bastards…" Ichigo forced out, glaring at Aizen specifically, "Let me go!" Instead of humoring her with a verbal response, Aizen merely smirked down at her. He reached for the sword in her shoulder and wrenched it free.

To her credit, Ichigo was able to keep the cry of pain from bursting out of her lips at the pain the wound caused. Blood rushed out of her shoulder, staining her uniform and settling into the fabric. Ichigo distanced herself from the pain by debating how badly the blood would cake in the materials. From past experience, she knew it utterly destroyed cotton. Wool might fare better, but it was a long shot. Unless she got the blood out, it might ruin the fabric. However… The fabric was a result of her spiritual presence, so who knew what would happen.

Aizen's movement drew her attention away from laundry to see what the madman was doing. He had placed the katana, Ichigo was sure that it wasn't a zanpakuto, behind him and merely held his hand in front of him, contemplating his actions. This slow movement drew out some small form of anxiety.

"Whatever you're gonna do, just do it!" she snapped, trying to glare him down. For a moment, she attempted to flex the small amount of reatisu she knew that she possessed, but instead pain racketed out within her instead. She swallowed and immediately stopped trying to manipulate her power. Aizen's smile grew darker and he reached out towards her in order to caress her cheek. He stopped his hand a millimeter away from her skin.

"What a beautiful flower…" he murmured, "It seems a shame to mar it…The beauty you hold is different from your dear Orihime… I wonder which one screams louder though…" And with that, his fingers connected to her skin.

She screamed, unable to stop the sound as her flesh burned and disappeared when trying to protect her from his reatisu. His fingers left her skin a moment later, but blood poured down the part of her face that wasn't ruined by the damage and dripped its way onto her collar bone before joining the other blood stains on her shoulder.

"So this is the damage my power does against those who have fallen from transcendental status…" He smiled down at her, mirth rising in response to her pain. "Soon you will be my pawn against the Soul Society… And I _will_ attain the King's Key and ascend to that vacant throne…"

Overcoming the pain from the wound in her face, Ichigo managed to lunge forward at the cost of her wrists to spit on his shoes.

"Like _hell_ you will!" He struck out against her, sending her to scream again, pain erupting from the same location. His hand lingered on her skin this time and the smell of burning flesh crept out into the air.

"I think you will find that I will do whatever I may please, onna." The smile dropped from his face, wallowing his expression and making it all the more terrifying honest for it.

Ichigo didn't have the strength to stand against him once more and he turned, leaving her behind in Syzael's hands.

"You will notify of any significant change in her condition," Aizen murmured before turning to leave the madman and the prisoner behind. Syzael nodded once before turning his eyes back to his experiment.

She hung there limply once more and he smiled as information collected from various sensors in the room ran across the monitors stationed in front of him. While it was not the optimal settings of his lab, this room was more than capable of holding her, even if there happened to be another surge of reatisu like what she had displayed before.

Ichigo felt humiliation burn in her chest as blood dripped down the side of her face. She was sure that it was going to scar, but that wasn't even the worst of it. There was nothing she could do to fight against Aizen. He had her fully ensnared and she doubted she would ever make it out. The confidence that had surged through her before seemed to be a distant memory.

' _Ichigo…'_ she turned her thoughts inward at the sound of Ossan's voice. _'Come join us and we will discuss this…'_ She closed her eyes and turned her perceptions away from the pain permeating through her cheeks and arms to descend down into her inner world.

Ichigo opened her eyes to the sensation of falling. She was falling through the water down towards the bottom of this world once more. Unlike her recent journeys, she was aware of it this time. The water was coated with an almost inky blackness as the sun seemed to be almost out. However, even from her height the bloodstain was still visible, reflecting the practically nonexistent light back with all of its might.

She took note of how she was falling and made minor adjustments to her position in order to land on her feet. After a few moments, she landed softly onto the concrete that made up the bridge.

"Ichigo…" she looked up to see Ossan standing there in front of her. "We must speak."

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **As promised, here is the next chapter! I would like to give a HUGE thank you to Andrey258. They sat down and reviewed every chapter in one go! It made me extremely happy to hear what someone else thought as I kind of felt like I was writing to a wall. So, to Andrey258, I'm working on a PM, I'm just insanely busy at this moment and will try to sit down and get a reply penned out later.**

 **To everyone else, I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know what you thought! A big thank you to everyone else who has followed/favorited/reviewed thus far as well! I'll post again on Thursday!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"What do you want to talk about?" Ichigo asked her spirits drearily, still feeling the blood dripping down her shoulder despite coming to her inner world.

"We need to devise a plan," Ossan said, Shiro nodding along in agreement to his words, "It is one thing for us to bide our time, but he _hurt_ you." Ossan's voice changed into one filled with malice against the man who dared to touch Ichigo. Shiro's face similarly darkened and Ichigo could feel the ill will in the air around the two, darkening the water further than it was moments ago.

"I don't know," Ichigo murmured, "He's got me chained up. I'm not sure how I can get out of it."

" ** _Kouhi,_** " Shiro cut in, " ** _this isn't something we can half-ass. We gotta get outta here or he's gonna fuck you up."_** Ossan frowned slightly at the way Shiro phrased it, but murmured his agreement.

"I just don't know!" Ichigo answered, "Give me some time, I'll… I'll figure out something! Just… Just not right now…" Ichigo backed away from the two spirits before turning and running. She ran to escape their questioning stares and to escape her own inadequacies. She was stuck and there wasn't anything she could do. The mark on her cheek spoke of that.

She failed her nakama. After fighting with everything she had, she couldn't beat the monster that was Aizen. He took her failure and shoved it in her face by chaining her up like the failed dog she was.

"I thought I could protect everyone…" Ichigo finally fell to her knees and let her tears spill out of her eyes. The salt burned her wound, but she accepted the pain. After everything else that had happened, she deserved it. It was the least she could do to atone for her failure.

Ichigo couldn't say how long she sat there in isolation, but she was happy that her spirits left her alone for once. It gave her time and space to really come to terms with where she was and her ability or lack thereof. After some amount of time, Ichigo jolted up. Someone in the outside world was calling her name. Determined, she ignored it.

"Ossan! Shiro!" she called, trying to fight the urge to respond outside of her inner world. In a flash, the two spirits were there. "They're trying to get my attention again," she said, turning her absolute focus onto the two figures in front of her.

"You must focus in on this place if you wish to remain here." Ossan murmured to her gently. Ichigo nodded and closed her eyes briefly, bringing her attention inward to ignore the outer stimulus. After a long moment, she finally opened her eyes again.

"I don't know what to do," Ichigo said, staring at the two spirits, "I can't figure out a way out right now," Ichigo admitted, trying to hide her shame.

"We will think of something," Ossan declared, trying to keep the despair from swallowing what little light was left. Ichigo nodded and Shiro scowled.

" ** _Kouhi!_** " Shiro spat out, furious with the other girl, " ** _Suck it up! We'll find a way out because we always do! But we won't make any progress unless you stop sulking and just go for it!_** " Shiro's fury caught Ichigo off guard due to how subdued the albino spirit had been lately. However, it made perfect sense. Shiro had never been one to sit back and let the world flow around her. Instead, she broke the flow and shook things up. Ichigo nodded, straightening her posture. The fire sparked in her eyes again.

"You're right," Ichigo answered her, ignoring the resulting snort, "We'll get out of here. I promise. I'm gonna go check things out in the real world and look for ways to get out of those chains." With that, Ichigo closed her eyes. A few moments later, she opened them in the real world.

"Well, well, well…" Aizen murmured, eyes lighting upon hers, open for once as opposed to closed, "Look what we have here… You're finally awake of your own volition…" Her eyebrows furrowed, but her lips remained closed. Aizen smirked at her silence. "You've been unconscious for quite some time…" She still refused to answer him, fighting the urge to curse his name. Instead, she turned her head ever so slightly to view the shackles holding her up.

"You know… It's been weeks and weeks..." Aizen murmured, distracting her from her examination. A darkness seemed to roll over her face, but he saw the sweat beginning to gather on her brow. "They haven't tried to rescue you. By now, Urahara has surely told them of your… Defects. The defects _I_ saved you from. They've given up on you."

At that, her head snapped up. Fire burned within her belly. However, instead of trying to speak, she stayed for a moment.

"You're not worth saving," Aizen jaded her softly, "You never have, and never will be. Every moment leading up to now has been a fluke. As I've told you many times before, your existence has been my plan." He smiled, but his face transformed moments later. Ichigo lifted her head and spat on his shoes.

"You're the one who has no worth," she growled out, voice rough from anger, "I had you beat. It's a fluke that _you_ survived-"

Her words cut off as a searing pain cut across her cheek. Blood began to drip ever so slowly down her pale peach skin once more, over the wound he caused previously.

"No," Aizen said, fury gone once again from his face as he controlled the situation once more, "I defeated _you_. The hogyoku has sent me beyond the limits of a mere shinigami or hollow. _No one_ stands against me. Not you, not the Gotei thirteen. Make no mistake, Kurosaki, I _will_ take the place of the Soul King and recreate this flawed universe."

Again, she spat in his direction. Blood flowed in response.

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **Hey guys, here I am on Thursday, as promised! I have a few more chapters written. I'm actually very excited to get to this part as this scene with Aizen was one of the first few scenes I wrote for this whole story. Please let me know what you think!**

 **Thanks to** _ **vueren, Anzac-A1, Andrey258, Anything1516**_ **and anyone else who favorited, followed, or reviewed this story.**

 **To answer your suggestion** Andrey258: **While turning Aizen against the Quincy is an interesting idea, you have to remember that it is almost two years before the Quincy start to move in Hueco Mundo. Well, since it is a whole bang shang civil war before cannon really gets involved; we must assume it started well beforehand. However, I think it must be a few months since Aizen falls that they move in. Since he managed to survive, I think it's reasonable to assume that the Quincy are rethinking their plan to attack.**

 **Also, Ichigo only knows that there is some ancient prophecy about a king and her zanpakuto is really half made of a representation of that king. She doesn't really know about the Vandereich or any of that. I don't think I want to include the Quincy in this story as it makes it a little messy and hard to plan where it's going. I know where I want to take this, so unfortunately the Wandereich aren't going to fit in this particular story.**

 **Assuming I did want to take it that direction though, I don't think Ichigo would want to tell Aizen that there are people he can potentially bring against the Seretei. While she doesn't know all of the casualties because she wasn't there for everything, she did get to see glimpses of the all out war against the espada and other arrancars. She went through Hueco Mundo to get to Orihime and she saw the strength of that whole army. She knows that Aizen is a trickster and a man that can be truly terrifying through intellect alone. All he would need to do to overpower the entire Quincy force and get at least everyone but Juha Bach under his control would be to release his sword. She hasn't seen it, but she doesn't know that it disintegrated due to the workings of the Hogyoku. Ichigo is pretty smart and I don't think she would give him an opportunity like that.**

 **One last thing, thank you for the suggestion, even though I'm not really using it, it made me flesh out more of the backstory and I really appreciate the critical thinking mini-session.**

 **To everyone else, please review and let me know what you think!**


	13. Chapter 13

**WARNING: This chapter includes a scene leading up to a rape. There are not any graphic details, but please be warned if you have any triggers relating to that sort of thing. I will place line dividers before and after. It is right at the end of the chapters.**

Chapter 13

For several days, this went on. She stayed in the real world, trying desperately to find a way out of the shackles and chains, but all for naught. He always came back to interrupt her progress. Each day, Aizen began with statements judging her worth.

"You have _never_ been in a position of worth…" he murmured, tenderly stroking her back with the tip of his finger. Steam came searing up from the contact, leaving severe burns down the skin as he went. "Instead… You are the dog that they couldn't bear to put down… Useful in the moment, but ultimately useless…" She turned, fire briefly spiking in her eyes. As quickly as she could, she lashed out. Her teeth sank into his arm. Steam continued to rise from the contact, but she managed to hang on through the pain.

"You little bitch!" he screamed, rearing away. Days and nights seemed to blur together. From that point on, Aizen's visits became more frequent, interrupting the schedule he seemed to have kept previously. After several cycles, Ichigo would guess a week if she absolutely had to, the pattern stopped.

" ** _Kouhi!"_** the voice echoed into her head, distracting her from the pain of her broken body. Her head jerked up ever so slightly, opening scabs on her back. **_"Are you just going to let him do that?!"_** The pure wrath of Shiro's voice echoed within her, setting something loose deep inside.

 _"_ _No…"_ she whispered internally, feeling the storm building within.

 **"** **Scream your feelings to the heavens!"** Shiro added, fueling the fires lighting within her inner world. Thunder and lightning boomed within the heavens around the sword spirit despite the fact that no rain fell.

 _"_ _NO!"_ she screamed, breaking the storm loose. She began struggling, paying no mind to her wounds as they reopened. Blood began to drip, viscous, down her body.

She struggled harder as footsteps came strolling down the hallway, coming to stop her no doubt. The reatisu within her fluttered just out of her reach and she flailed harder. One wrist snapped and slid out of the shackle, leaving a good deal of skin and even muscle smeared on the metals. The pain hit her like a sack of bricks, but she pulled through it, trying to free her other arm.

At that point, the door to the cell slammed open. Aizen stood there, livid. His hair seemed to float behind him, his power sparked through the air around him. For a moment, Ichigo thought she was going to be struck down where she crouched. However, he swirled on one foot and moved away, like an impending storm. As soon as he was gone, she kept moving. However, after a long moment, gas starting pouring out of the vents behind her. She tried to hold her breath, but her body's need for oxygen betrayed her and she sucked in the slightly pink tinged air.

A few moments passed and everything started to get hazy. She tried to stay awake, shifting her broken wrist to jolt pain into her system as a stimulus to stay awake. The pain cleared the daze for a sharp, dazzlingly clear moment before adding its own layer to the drug infiltrating her system. Try as she might, Ichigo could not stay awake. She fell to the floor, her eyes half lidded as someone entered her cell. They crouched down and all she could see before she passed out was blue.

She woke up, once more chained to the wall and clamped her jaw shut as the searing pain burned through her flesh. The red hot tongs on her arms descended after a living eternity at the sight of her caramel brown eyes open.

"Tch," Ichigo looked up to see Grimjow staring back down at her, "You didn't last all that long after all," he sneered, "From what the pink haired freak told me, I thought I was gonna have to keep at it longer to get you awake." She spat at his feet, glaring at him. "Bitch!" He slapped her across the face, sending more pain sparking through her nerves. However, she kept that pain to herself and instead shot a few questions his way.

"How the fuck are you still here?" she demanded, some of the pain showing in her tone despite her best efforts.

"Tch," he sneered at her again, "You were too much of a coward to finish me off. Granted, you were strong enough to almost beat Aizen. _Almost._ Looks like you shinigami aren't all that anyways. And now you're falling apart. And we have a history to settle. You humiliated me." Ichigo set up a sneer of her own to mask her pain.

"So the kitty comes crawling back to its master with its tail between its legs to find its favorite toy?" she taunted, ignoring the fact that she was the toy in that particular metaphor.

"Like hell I'll ever call that _freak_ my master," Grimmjow scoffed back, "I'm just using him as a means to an end." Ichigo scowled at him.

"And what end is that?" she growled.

"I already told you, Berry," he answered snidely, "You humiliated me. I need to return the favor." Ichigo leaned forward, glaring at him in the eye. After a long moment, she spat on his cheek.

"You can't do anything to me, fuckboy," she whispered, before leaning back and smirking like the cat that caught the canary, "I'm gonna get outta here; then you and everyone else will pay for everything you've done to hurt me and mine."

* * *

"Fine," he growled, "I was _going_ to be nice. But after that… You better think again." He leaned forward, grabbing her jaw and forcing his lips onto hers. She was unable to move away.

The blue haired arrancar brought his other hand around to her behind and grabbed it roughly, causing her to gasp in surprise. He used this to his advantage and thrust his tongue into her mouth. She bit down on his tongue and he slapped her butt. Moments later, he moved his hand from her backside to the front of her robes. She fought as best she could, but the man beat her down and took advantage of her broken wrist and her wounded face. The tie came loose and her hakama dropped.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

Andrey258: **So... Yeah, this happened instead... Grimmjow is not a nice kitty-kitty. This was one of the initial scenes when I was planning this story a bit over a year ago. Please keep reviewing and letting me know what you think should happen next.**

 **To the two people who reviewed as guest, thank you so much! If you review again, would you please come up with a nickname so I can answer you properly?**

 **To anyone who didn't review, please let me know what you think of this chapter! See you (figuratively) next Thursday!**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

When Grimjow finally left her, she was completely naked, but he had unchained her. She crawled to the pile of rags that had once been her shihakusho and slid it on.

"It's so cold…" she murmured. Once everything was on, she closed her eyes to retreat from her defiled body. After several long moments, her eyes opened again on her inner world.

"Ichigo…" at the soft voice of the older portion of her zanpakuto, her head slowly raised. Instead of the fire that usually dominated her gaze, a dead weight had settled, muting her brown eyes from their warm chocolate to a muddy gray. "He cannot control your fate." She shook her head, eyes sinking once more to the stained cement scene that controlled the majority of her inner world. Overhead, clouds rumbled and boomed with thunder and lightning, but no rain fell. Rain meant depression and depression was the opposite of hope. Ichigo was merely empty.

Behind her, Shiro sat on the edge of the one building that still stood amidst the destruction. An exact replica of the Kurosaki clinic was perched at the edge of the river. However, instead of concrete and cement, this building was made of glass. Windows reflected old memories, the ones that used to drive her. However, this time the muck of her hopelessness and lack of despair muted all the colours to the gray tone that made up her eyes.

" ** _He's right, Kouhi,_** " Shiro muttered, voice carrying despite the thunder crashing through the air, "They don't decide who you are, _you_ do."

"But how can I go on?" she asked, voice breaking, "When all of this… All of this… Means nothing…"

" ** _If you give up that easily, then hell yeah it means nothing!_** " Shiro shouted, going from apathy to fury in less than a second. The white figure was up in Ichigo's face moments later, golden irises boring into brown ones. " ** _I thought you were_** **better** **_than that!_** " she hissed. Ichigo glanced away a moment later, no fire sparking in her gaze.

"…I'm not…" she whispered, trying to keep the tears in her eyes from spilling over the edge, "Can't you see what they're doing to me? I can't… I can't stop them."

Finally overhead, rain drops began to fall. Emotions overwhelmed the girl and the storm finally broke. Shiro stepped back, surprise lighting her face.

She hadn't… She hadn't known exactly what would happen, prodding Ichigo like that, but… This… _This_ wasn't what she was aiming for. Suddenly, Shiro felt Ichigo's emotions running through her. While this was nothing new, the intensity caught her off guard. Anger, hate, disgust, fear… All of these she felt so much stronger than the soul that hosted her, but despair… Despair she only felt echoes of. However… These feelings knocked her over like a feather in a hurricane; there was simply no other way to describe it.

She looked up and made eye contact with Ossan. The glare on his glasses dropped for long enough that his piercing eyes revealed what she wanted to know. She had gone too far. This was a time to be gentle. With a sigh, Shiro dropped down to sit next to Ichigo. She leaned against her and the pair sat back to back, one staring at the rain and the other next to a bloodstain.

" ** _You_** **are** ** _better than that_** ," Shiro said after a long period of silence, " ** _Don't you remember back when you had just 'defeated' me in battle and you were still getting used to our mask? As you moved through Las Noches, you managed to beat so many different opponents that would've killed you in one attack even mere hours before you battled them._** "

Ichigo remained silent, but allowed her eyes to stray from the blood stain and up into the sky.

" ** _Yeah, you're in a bad situation, but it's only a little worse than what you've been in before. So what if he did that? It'll just give you more fuel to use against him later. You ain't human, hollow, zanpakuto, or Quincy. You're just Kurosaki Ichigo, substitute badass._** " A slight smile showed on Ichigo's face and a small ray of sunshine split through the clouds.

The storm was still raging just as fiercely as before, but rays of light shone through the clouds. With a grim determination on her face, she turned to face her two zanpakuto spirits.

"We know what that pink haired freak is doing, right?" she demanded, already sure of the answer.

" ** _Yeah_** ," Shiro answered nodding as she leaned against the clinic's windows.

"He is enlarging your reirkyou coils to attempt to jumpstart your reatisu output." Ossan added, perched on the edge of the building's roof.

"So…" she mused, thinking over her next few questions carefully. As she thought, the rain overhead slowed. It didn't stop, but seemed to form itself off into one portion of her inner world. Both of her spirits noticed this immediately, but Ichigo herself seemed unaware of the climate change. "Is it working?" she finally asked, looking up at the two figures opposite her.

"To an extent," Ossan replied softly, "But your wound runs deep. Healing this particular condition is similar to attempting to fill a self-healing cup with a large hole in it. With added material, the old will grow back over the new, but it is possible that too much will merely destroy the cup entirely."

"Okay," Ichigo said, nodding with a serious expression on her face, "Well… How about we make a side compartment in that cup?" Shiro looked up sharply at that.

" ** _You want us to help compress your reatisu so you can get outta here after that guy juices you up!_** "

"Yeah," she answered as the clouds finally broke overhead. Instead of the sun that once shined overhead, the red moon shone down on the three figures, "Yeah I do. And we will make them _pay._ " There was no added venom to the word, but the air around her glowed dark with menace in the gleam of her gaze.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... Here is the chapter for today! Please let me know what you think of what happened and what you think should happen next!**

AnonymousGuest **: I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Let me know what you think of how the story is going now! Thanks for the review!**

Andrey258: **That's a good idea! I think there's still some issues that Grimmjow needs to work out with Ichigo, but I didn't really have a plan for what happens to do with him after that. Thanks for the suggestion and for your review!**

 **OK everyone, I'll have another chapter for you on Thursday!**


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"There are several ways to begin this," Ossan said, watching the world around them instead of looking towards his wielder.

"Okay," Ichigo said, urging him to continue, "What do we do?"

"You must learn to control your powers."

"I know how to-" Ichigo began before Ossan cut her off with a peculiar look. "Oh," she said a moment later, "You meant the Quincy powers…" Ossan nodded, turning his gaze back out to the sunken city. His eyes flickered up to the crimson moon before glancing back down to the buildings.

"We must build up this sunken city." Ossan turned his gaze on Ichigo, studying her from head to toe. Her clothing was ripped and ragged, showing the passage of time and the rough conditions her soul had been through to this day.

"Help me take the first steps," Ichigo said. The pain behind her eyes and the indignation at what had happened to her was still there, but she put it behind her, doing her best to ignore it. It was still important; it was still life shattering, but she could put it aside to concentrate on something more important. Ossan nodded and Shiro took a step forward, raising an eyebrow silently at Ossan. He took a step back, giving his approval just as silently.

 ** _"_** ** _Kouhi, to understand everything else, you really have to understand the basic difference between me and Ossan."_** Ichigo nodded, watching warily as Shiro took another step forward, only a few inches between them now.

 ** _"_** ** _For one, Ossan's nicer than me."_** For the first time in months, Shiro drew her blade. Ichigo hadn't realized that she still carried it at this point. After another millisecond, she realized she herself didn't have a blade. Shiro dove forward, sword first. For once, it was a simple katana, not the overlarge meat cleaver that had become so familiar to Ichigo or the black sword of her bankai that she had wielded for so many hours straight in the battle for her soul.

"Wait!" Ichigo shouted, dodging out of the way of the sword. It ended up digging into the cement behind her, dangerously close to the bloodstain. Shiro didn't heed her warning, instead the albino dragged her blade out of the cement and turning. She sonido'd forward, blade edge out towards Ichigo, aiming for her shoulder

Again, Ichigo threw herself out of the way. She shunpo'd sideways, searching out of the corner of her eyes for Ossan. He stood back, merely watching the two begin their fight. The shadows covered half of his face and she looked away, understanding she was on her own. For a third time, Shiro came at her, this time from behind. Ichigo put on a burst of speed and just barely cleared the tip of the sword.

 ** _"_** ** _Is dodging all you can do?!"_** Shiro demanded, barely able to hold still for long enough to speak, **_"You're more than just a monkey, Kouhi! So act like it or I'll flip our roles!"_** Ichigo frowned as Shiro alluded to a fight she thought was long since over.

Shiro sped forward, lifted her sword, and swung forward. Although the sword was sealed, the power of the swing began to split the cement as it raced towards Ichigo.

"…Enough." Ichigo whispered. She closed her eyes and the blue vein pattern climbed onto her skin. Right before the strength of the swing hit her, the blue pattern jumped out, forming a dome of sorts around Ichigo. Shiro took it in stride, smiling as Ichigo finally decided to fight back.

Shiro spun around as Ichigo flickered into view behind her, veins still glowing blue. Although Ichigo didn't hold a blade, Shiro felt the hairs on the nape of her neck rise in warning. She dodged as Ichigo struck out with the back of her hand. Shiro was forced to jump backwards as Ichigo began to hit strike after strike towards her. The blue veins glowed brighter for a moment and then Shiro managed to nick Ichigo's arm. Ichigo scowled at her and the blue veins spurted out blood. The pattern traced itself out onto the red liquid, partially shifting the color and formed into a blade. Without giving much thought to it, Ichigo struck.

After a long moment, blood spurted out of Shiro's shoulder. Ichigo took half a step back, the pattern of veins flickering before vanishing completely. She collapsed. Shiro felt her reatisu pulse strangely and she stepped back before flinging down the sword and staring at her hands. The reatisu pulsed again and Ossan moved forward next to Shiro. He laid a hand on her shoulder, drawing power away from her. It appeared the scientist was at work once more.

Despite Ossan's assistance in drawing some of the reatisu away, Shiro could still feel the chaos that the foreign energy introduced into her disposition. Breathing deeply, she did what she could to shove her instincts down. While she was a hollow, there was much more to her existence than giving into her desire to destroy.

The pair stayed like that for quite some time before the incursion finally ended. Shiro let out a sigh of relief, dropping to her knees. After a long moment, she picked up the sealed katana and re-sheathed it on her back where it had been sitting before.

"You still carry that broken blade?" Ossan asked, knowing immediately what the katana was even when Ichigo failed to recognize it.

 ** _"_** ** _I have to,"_** Shiro admitted, looking over to Ichigo's unconscious form, **_"At least until she can call our name again."_**

"I fear that may not happen again," Ossan murmured, earning Shiro's surprised, and somewhat betrayed, gaze. "While we may be regaining some strength… We still are living past the edge of our existence. After the Saiga…" Shiro's gaze softened somewhat, following the older spirit's thought.

 ** _"_** ** _We're living on borrowed time. If we don't get through this fast enough…"_**

"Those cracks will catch up and Ichigo will never hear our voices again." Shiro climbed back up to her feet before striding over to Ichigo.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So, I will be the first to admit that I got a bit ahead of myself with this chapter. What do you guys think? Is the introduction to the blut too fast? I kinda wanna speed up a bit through this next section, but I want it to still be realistic. Would you rather I went faster with a bit of a more generalized description or do you want every single last detail?**

 **Also, this is the last chapter I have written all the way through. That means I need to spend a bit more time on this, but honestly I'm slightly worried right now as I live in the U.S.A. and I'm very concerned with the election this year... Honest question, I'm not insulting anyone's view, I just want to understand other P.O.V.s; is anyone voting for Donald Trump that would like to explain why? Or Hillary Clinton? Or really third party? I'd like to have a bit of a discussion on politics, but if you don't want to, that's fine. Please don't insult me for asking. Or, if you don't live in the States, I'd like to know what you think of the state of American politics.**

 **Or if anyone wants to talk about anything really, as long as it's being civil, I like to learn new things. For example, the state of the Egyptian pound or the state of England. In general.**

 **Did everyone have a good Halloween? Anybody else have to work? I work in a pool, so I dressed up as a pirate and said my first mate shoved me overboard when I had to get into the water. What did everyone else dress up as?**

 **Back on topic,**

Anonymous Guest **: Well, I wasn't really planning on including Nel, but I suppose I could put in a sub-arc and put her in. Thanks for the suggestion! And I hope this Thursday is going well for you too!**

Andrey258 **: I'm sorry! I offered twice a week as an option, but upon further consideration, I don't think I can keep up that kind of pace... And as for your suggestion, unfortunately I am not planning on including the Vandereich in this story. There are already enough characters in Bleach and my brain is not wired to remember names in German... I speak Spanish and some Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, but phonetically German isn't that similar so I struggle a bit. I might include them in a different story, but not this one. Urahara will be involved later on in the story, but not the Vandereich. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of hamburgers, but I do like turkey burgers, so I will have some of those instead.**

 **Anywho, I hope everyone liked the chapter, thank you to everyone who followed/favorited/or reviewed!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

" ** _Let's get the lazy bitch up then,"_** Shiro declared, gently, for her at least, kicking Ichigo to wake her. After several kicks that were sure to cause bruises, Ichigo finally stirred with a groan. " ** _It's time to get up, Kouhi!"_** Shiro took a step back as Ichigo forced herself up. Ichigo stared down at her hands in wonder.

"That was the same thing from before…" Ichigo muttered, thinking back to when Shiro had gone on the edge from the foreign reatisu. "How did I do that?" Ichigo demanded, turning to Ossan. "What's it called?"

"That was an ability known as Blut." Ossan responded, "One of the only techniques in the Quincy arsenal that will come to you instinctively. The Quincy stand at the opposite side of existence from the shinigami. Their techniques are learned with practice and instinct. The style of the Quincy is one of discipline and training. This will be arduous."

"But it'll be worth it." Ichigo climbed to her feet, turning to face the two spirits. Ossan stared at her for a moment before smiling softly.

"Yes," Ossan agreed, "It will be."

" ** _So what are we waiting on?"_** Shiro asked sarcastically, " ** _The sun to come up? Cause that ain't gonna happen."_** Ichigo cracked a small grin at Shiro's impatience. Before she could do much else, searing pain struck across her back and her arm. She cried out and fell to her knees.

"- ** _Kouhi!"_**

"-Ichigo!"

The two spirits rushed forward at the same time. Shiro knelt down to see blood seeping through the back of Ichigo's hakama. She frowned and glanced up at Ossan before taking a few steps back. He nodded and knelt down next to her instead.

"Ichigo…" he murmured, "Can you hear me?"

"Y-Yeah…" she said shakily. She convulsed where she lay, blood dripping faster from the wounds appearing on her back. After a moment, she coughed, blood trickling down her chin as she opened her eyes.

"Concentrate, Ichigo," Ossan murmured, "Feel the powers flowing around you. They will keep you safe. Harness them as you did before." Ichigo closed her eyes and searched for the power that she'd grasped before. After a long moment, the blue vein pattern flashed through the skin on her back, protecting her from some of the further damage. Unfortunately, some damage had already been done and the pain was excruciating. Her form flickered before their eyes and Ichigo groaned as something seared into her arms. She was drawn out into the open world a moment later.

She kept her eyes closed even as her jaw tensed, fighting to ignore the pain and return back to her inner world. Another searing pain against her arm drew a gasp from her.

"I'm glad you're finally awake," came the gruff voice of Grimmjow. Ichigo stiffened at the sound of it. Although she'd resolved to move past it, she could still feel his hands on her skin, sending it crawling. After a long moment, she opened her eyes.

"What do you want this time?" she growled, finding her footing as she tried to take some weight off of her wrists. Although part of it was to relieve the pain, she also wanted to be ready to leap at the panther if he came any closer to her. She was still in the cell, but she'd been chained up again in her unconscious state.

"I need to talk to you," he muttered, glancing out the door like he was nervous about being observed.

"You've already said all I need to hear!" she snapped.

"No," he said, setting down the hot tongs that he'd used to draw her out of her inner world, "I haven't. We needed to be even, we've gotten there." He came a little closer, as if to whisper to her a secret no one else could know. It sent her skin crawling.

"NO!" she shouted, jumping forward, swinging from the chains to kick him and try to beat him down. However, her brief spurt of energy quickly abandoned her even with the adrenaline surging in her veins. She hung down from the chains, the metal digging into her already damaged wrists. The bones that had broken in her previous escape attempt screamed at her, reminding her that her body was not designed to hang from its wrists.

"God damnit, onna!" Grimmjow cursed, clutching his abdomen. He hadn't realized that Ichigo could simply kick that hard. Although she was down… He realized after another moment that it was likely because she had a fear of him that she'd never had before. "I'm trying to _help_ you!"

"Like hell you are!" she spat back, "You've already… You've already done what you want to me, we're supposedly _even_ , so just keep the hell away from me!"

Grimmjow stared down at Ichigo, ire rising. He stood there for a moment, trying to fight back the anger. Here he was, acting out of his sense of justice to free a downed foe who had defeated him in the past after making their score even and she was spiting him.

"Look," he growled, slamming her into the wall, "Whether you like it or not, you need to know this. Aizen is having that freak pump you full of the reatisu they have stored from the previous espada. Mine included, I guess. But I heard them talking about how they want to get you back up to transcendent status and they're planning on making you an arrancar as best they can! If you don't get outta here, they're gonna corrupt that pretty little soul of yours."

"I think you've already done that," Ichigo whispered, fighting the reaction of her breathing shallowing and her pulse speeding up that Grimmjow was causing with how close he was.

"I think you've got more to lose than you know," Grimmjow murmured back. For a moment, he stood there, holding her tightly again the wall, pressing his body against hers once more. The scent in her hair was driving him crazy.

"You're already taking it," Ichigo protested as he went to take his way once more.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... Yeah. Here's the next chapter. Grimmjow might be a bit OOC, but it will all be explained in time. Please remember that Aizen is a master manipulator. He might not have made an appearance lately, but don't worry, he will be back to his tendencies and make another appearance before long.**

 **Also, Donald Trump won the presidential vote. Guess I'm applying for a passport sooner rather than later. Let's all just cross our fingers and hope he carries himself with more respect then he did during the campaign.**

AnonomousGuest: **I'm kinda scared with the state of politics over here. A president is supposed to speak for all of his people and I feel like Donald Trump doesn't speak for me. Handing out candy is pretty cool! I wish I would've gotten to do that; my family said we got a lot of traffic at my house for once. Thanks for your input on the blut intro!**

Andrey258: **Well, he's not exactly throwing her over his shoulder yet, but he is trying to help her. Might not seem like it, but remember that there is a crazy scientist and a wanna be god behind the scenes. I have an idea of what I want to do with the next couple scenes, so thanks for the suggestion!**

 **Thanks to** _ **punitivesiren, Andrey258,**_ **and _AnonomousGuest,_ as well as anyone else who has favorited/followed/reviewed thus far! Please let me know what you guys think of the chapter! Have a great week, the next chapter'll be out next week on Thursday! However, the Thursday after that I will not be able to post as it is Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. for those of you who don't live in the States. I'll try to post Tuesday the 22nd, so my update day may just move to Tuesdays after the holiday. We'll see.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

He left her cold once more, not even giving her the dignity of laying on the floor in her shame. However, he at least returned her hakama to its proper place. She did her best to ignore what he'd done, merely closing her eyes instead. Although Aizen was no longer torturing her in the traditional sense, she had no doubts that he was sending Grimmjow here to 'keep watch' over her and prevent her from coming up with a plan to escape. She closed her eyes to keep the moment, letting only a single tear roll down her cheek.

After letting herself wallow for a long moment, she opened steely eyes in her inner world.

"We need to get out of here," she announced loudly to the two spirits in front of her, "No more delays. Training, now."

And so it began. Ichigo threw herself into her training with all of her might, refusing to admit even a possibility of failure. Shiro would come after her with the sealed katana while Ichigo learned to use her Quincy abilities against him. The use of blut became almost second nature and she was able to call it forth to strike instead of defend even from the beginning of the spar. Ossan watched from afar with a critical eye, offering words of wisdom when she failed to react how she should've.

Syzael continued to pump the foreign reatisu into her inert body in the cell, but the only notice the members of the inner world took was to force it down and compress it. On one occasion, the surge of reatisu was larger than what had come before. Ossan had mainly been in charge of controlling the foreign reatisu as he was the one most suited for the task, but in this case, he was unable to carry the burden alone.

Shiro straightened up, jumping back from a gasping Ichigo, muttering "Break" as an excuse as the orange haired girl tried to jump after her. Ichigo took that gratefully and halfway collapsed where she was at. The reatisu Shiro had sensed pulsed again, sending her reeling. It was the same feeling that had pulled her to attack Ossan before.

A strangled yelp pushed its way out of her throat as the reatisu attacked her inner instincts, fighting and pulling them to the forefront.

"Shiro?" Ichigo asked, looking up at the albino spirit, "What's wrong?" Shiro turned to look at her and Ichigo inhaled sharply as she saw the normally gold iris turning red. Shiro rushed forward, blade at the ready to slit Ichigo's throat. Ichigo managed to dodge, just barely, in time. While Shiro never took it easy on her, Ichigo could detect a change in Shiro's typical pattern. It had gone from brutal to lethal in the blink of an eye.

"Shiro!" Ichigo shouted, trying to break the spirit out of whatever funk she was in. However, it wasn't working. Shiro attacked time and time again, vicious like she'd been at no other point. Everything was hazed over in red and she needed to see blood. Her ears roared with a pulse she didn't have as she went after Ichigo.

Ossan flashed in, recovered from his brief lapse with the large burst of reatisu pumped into Ichigo's inner world. However, Shiro got around him. After several seconds, Shiro jerked back, the haze finally gone as the red condensed in the form of blood dripping from Ichigo's shoulder, just above her heart.

Shiro moved away as fast as she could, feeling her heart pound in her chest so quickly she thought it would burst out of the weak cage of muscle and bone. She closed her eyes for a moment, watching over and over as she attacked Ichigo in her mind's eye. That battle was a pathetic excuse to quell the storm rising in her own foundation and she was sure that Ichigo was aware of that very fact.

Shiro was forced to stop as a shift in the world around her sent her flying. Her eyes went wide as she took in how close the crimson moon was before slamming them closed. She crashed into a building and skidded out the other side without ever seeing the contents on the inside. After a long moment, she sat up, nursing her imagined bruises for a long moment.

" ** _What the fuck was that?"_** Shiro asked, pulling herself to her feet. Another tremor nearly knocked her down and she dug her feet into the side of the building to prevent it from doing so. The world around her was shaking as reatisu poured in once more. Frowning, Shiro stared off into the distance where a major crack sat on the edge of the sunken city.

" ** _Shit…_** " she muttered, looking around at the rest of the city.

Ichigo stared blankly after where Shiro had fled, clutching at her wound as the pale spirit disappeared in the distance.

"Ichigo…" Ossan murmured, drawing her attention to him, "You should close your wound." Ichigo nodded half-heartedly, absently going through the motions to halt the bleeding. Briefly, the vein pattern flashed onto her skin as she activated her blut.

"What just happened?" Ichigo asked, "I know she's always been… Brutal, but…"

"You're right," Ossan affirmed, "This was different. Much different. The influx of reatisu from that scientist has changed in pattern. I was unable to control a large amount of the last surge and I fear the reatisu has begun to effect Shiro negatively."

"So…" Ichigo trailed off as a large tremor began in the distance. In the blink of an eye, it surged through the area, tearing up buildings. Ichigo was thrown from where she sat but Ossan had managed to jump just in time to remain standing in the air. He watched as Ichigo crashed into the concrete ground of her city.

"The fuck?!" she shouted, sitting up and rubbing her shoulder where her wound had been aggravated.

"Prepare yourself," was the only response she received from Ossan as another tremor tore through the inner world. This time, Ichigo launched herself into the air in time to avoid being thrown about like a ragdoll.

"What's going on?" A large rumble sounded through the inner world and they turned to see a crack opening along the horizon.

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... Heh heh heh... Might've been a bit late for this... I am very ashamed... But for the first time updating late since chapter, what? 10? Not bad. I will post a chapter tomorrow as well and I will try to get one out on Wednesday, but no promises! None at all! I am HORRIBLE at schedules most of the time...**

 **So, important things happening in this chapter. A mysterious crack appeared in Ichigo's inner world. What's going on? And why is Syzael changing the rate of reatisu that is being pumped into Ichigo? Is something going on in Las Noches behind the scenes? Is Aizen preparing for another attack?**

 **Time will tell.**

AnonymousGuest: **Well, I'm glad you said you like suspense... Cause this chapter is chock full of it. I'm glad you're liking the story so far though!**

Andrey258: **Well, that would be an interesting look in Grimmjow's pysche. Unfortunately, that's not quite it. I like the way you phrased a few things though! I think Grimmjow sees Ichigo as more of an equal, but in this situation, there is more at play than what is showing. Remember, Aizen is behind the scenes pulling the strings. He is most likely manipulating how Grimmjow is behaving, even if said espada doesn't think so. I will try to take a look at your story when I can, but I don't have a whole lot of time right now. I feel that though, I really do. My break between semesters is coming up in a little less than a month, I will try to read through and review it then, ok? Sorry I have to wait that long for you! I promise I will get to as soon as I can though!**

Guest: **Here's an update! Sorry I'm late with this one...**

 **So, please let me know what you guys think of the chapter and what you think should/might happen next! I probably won't use all of the suggestions, but seeing other ideas gives me a jog on how to get to the next part. I hope you all will hear from me tomorrow!**


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Ossan lead the way as the pair moved across the sky towards the chasm stretching across the landscape.

"What _is_ that?" Ichigo asked.

"If it is what I fear, I doubt that we will be able to protect this world from the outside much longer… We may have absorbed so much of this foreign reatisu that it is impossible to contain it all in the world as it is."

"So what's happening?" Ichigo demanded.

"Your inner world is expanding." The next few moments were spent in silence. Ahead of them, they spotted Shiro jumping from building to building towards the crack. Ichigo sped ahead of Ossan to run with her.

"You alright?" she asked as she caught up to her reflection.

" ** _Tch_** ," Shiro grumped back at her in reply. Ichigo took that to mean yes and nodded in response.

"Ossan said he thinks my inner world is expanding because there is too much foreign reatisu to accommodate." Shiro remained silent for a long moment.

" ** _It makes sense. If it's affecting me this badly, this world will be over-run. …It brings out the worst in people._** " Shiro fell silent after that as they came up to the crack. Ossan landed softly behind them as they peered down.

Below them, it looked as if another world had opened up. Sand littered the floor of the cannon and small, bone like trees grew, but it looked as though nothing would survive for long.

Shiro felt this part of the world tugging on her, as if trying to drag her down to the very bottom, under the sands. Before she realized it, she was leaning forward, as if to jump down. Ichigo's hand on her sleeve caught her, pulling her back to reality. She glanced back to see Ossan and Ichigo staring at her in concern. With a shake of her head, she jumped back.

" ** _It… It feels like Hueco Mundo…_** " Shiro admitted softly, " ** _It's trying to drag me in, like it wants to swallow me whole and never give me back…_** "

"I can feel that too…" Ichigo admitted. "Like… Like when we were first fighting for control. Some part of me always wondered if it would be easier to just give in and let you take my life. That part…" Ichigo's eyes glazed over and she took a step forward slowly, like she wasn't entirely sure what was happening around her. This time, Shiro's hand grabbed onto Ichigo's sleeve. However, that didn't appear to be entirely enough. Still, Ichigo leaned forward, eyes locked down and irises lightening ever so slightly…

Shiro tugged her back, shocking Ichigo back to herself.

"We need to move away from here," Ichigo muttered, eyes haunted. The other two nodded briefly and the three flashed away, back towards the heart of the city where the blood stained the floor of the river.

" ** _I can still feel it…"_** Shiro muttered, " ** _Pulling on me…_** " Ichigo had paled significantly since approaching the chasm and her eyes still held gold flecks in the amber of her usual chocolate.

"What're we gonna do?" Ichigo asked, staring down at the bloodstain once more.

"We will continue on as we have been…" Ossan said after a long moment of silence, "And we will stay here, in the heart of this world, as far from the chasm as we can." Ichigo and Shiro nodded, both glancing out to the darkness under the light of the crimson world.

"This means what that scientist is doing is really messing everything up," Ichigo muttered, "We need to do more than just continue on as before. We need to speed up."

 _ **"Then let's go!"**_ Shiro shouted, determination firing up as she pushed off the strange effects of the foreign reatisu.

"I suppose the best thing to do would be to see how you do with manipulating this reatisu yourself…" Ossan murmured, looking to Ichigo to see her reaction.

"Are you sure?" she asked, glancing towards the chasm with slight apprehension.

"If you cannot learn to control and guide that which comes to you, you will be trapped here until Aizen has conditioned you into what he wishes you to be." Ichigo's eyes snapped down to the blood stain once more and then straightened.

"Let's get started then." With a loud swooshing sound, the water began draining out of the world around them, violently twirling towards the chasm in the distance. Ichigo closed her eyes and pushed the blut out around them. The vein pattern spread out into an orb surrounding the three, staining the water a crimson red as it came into contact with the shield. After the worst of the storm had passed, Ichigo dropped the blut and the blood colored water ran around them, flooding the small area of the river bank ahead of them and flowing down to join the river that was now avidly flowing to change the color of the whole thing to match the stain that had changed Ichigo's entire life.

Days passed with no interruption from the outside world as the three began implementing their plot. From time to time, they were overwhelmed with the power and brief spurts of reatisu escaped Ichigo's inner world as she lost control of the foreign power.

On one such occasion, Szayel was able to catch the anomaly.

"It's working!" he whispered, awe filling him momentarily. After all of this time, literally several months, he managed to finally stop the disintegration of her soul. "Verona!" he snapped, summoning his fraccion to him. "Go and tell Aizen-sama that I have succeeded…"

"Hai," the fraccion responded bowing before going to do as it was told.

With bated breath, Szayel began the process to draw the daiko from her inner world. Tongs across her forearm and ever so casually lifting her head by strands of hair. Anything painful…

When nothing happened in result to his smaller ministrations, he moved on to the whip, sending blood running down her back and thighs. Still, nothing. He frowned, contemplating the girl in front of him. His eyes landed on her wrists, on the damage already there from her escape attempt. He took the tongs and heated them slowly until the cherry color was even more vivid than before. That done, he set them lightly onto the wrist more badly damaged and waited until he could smell her burning flesh before clamping down with all his strength.

Her eyes snapped open after several moments. The strain in her jaw caught his eye and he smirked.

"Welcome back," he greeted her, letting the smile continue.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 ***Dodges pitchforks and other nefarious weaponry***

 **Heh heh heh... Well... I didn't die... I'm not dead... Don't kill me... If you kill me you don't get the rest of the story... Which I have most of written... And the next four chapters done cause I sat down and wrote 5,000 words of the course of several hours... Then I broke it up into actual chapters so I could post... Be proud of me...**

 **So I'm planning on getting back onto a regular update schedule now. I realize that it is technically very early on Friday, but I haven't gone to sleep yet, so it counts as Thursday still. So I'll get the next chapter up next week on Thursday. Don't kill me or you won't get the update...**

 **So we're starting to get towards the end of this arc in the story. Soon will be the big confrontation with Aizen and you will learn how exactly all of Syzael's experimentation actually impacts Ichigo. As of now, it's kind of been an understated role in things, but there is so much more that no one knows the full extent of...**

 **I am so sorry for not updating in so long, I don't have a good explanation other than that I had a very stressful end of the semester and minor mental breakdowns with explaining poor grades to my family members. I just couldn't focus on writing or anything really without suffering from major anxiety. As a result, I kind of lost all motivation to work on this story. But now I'm back and I'm only taking two classes next semester as opposed to 16 credit hours and working 20-25 hours a week.**

Friendlyreminder: **Look! A wild update has appeared!**

Guest: **See above!**

AnonymousGuest: **I'm glad you enjoyed, I'm so sorry that I'm so late on this chapter. I should be getting back on schedule now.**

Andrey258: **So, I appreciate the review, but unfortunately Urahara will not be functioning in that role. He will be coming into the story in two chapters though! As I said, we are coming to the end of this arc. Grimmjow will play a similar part to things you have suggested, but I can't really tell you much or there will be major spoilers. Urahara will suffer for how much he hasn't helped with the situation, but again, spoilers!**

 **Thank you everybody for reading and reviewing! Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed or people who went and reviewed previous chapters! I hope to hear what everyone thinks and I will post again on Thursday! Happy New Years!**

 **(And Merry Christmas to those who celebrate that and happy holidays to everyone else and I'm sorry for not knowing all of the holidays that occur in December or I would list them! Love ya! Bye!)**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"What do you want?" she hissed, eyes flashing as he left the tongs where they were. He took his time contemplating an answer and she leapt ever so slightly forward, swinging wildly with her legs to hit him. He slumped back into the wall, tongs flying back to hit the side of his cheek.

"You bitch!" he hissed, jumping to his feet and flying forward. Before Ichigo could really steady herself from the kick, his hand was around her throat, cutting off her airway and one hand was pinching her wrist, tearing through muscle as he purposely drove his reatisu into a bala without releasing it. "You are here to _serve_ ," he snapped, looking down on her with fire in his eyes as her amber orbs began to roll back into her head, "And you would do well to learn your place!" Ichigo saw the world begin to darken around them and thought he was about to kill her. She concentrated as best she could and _pushed_ with her own reatisu. Syzael went flying again, breaking her wrist and firing off the bala in one motion as he lost consciousness.

Gritting her teeth through the pain, Ichigo pulled her burnt hand out of the shackle. Activating blut to slow the bleeding, she frowned at her other wrist, trying to figure out how to free her right arm without breaking that wrist too.

' _Your arm is bleeding, Ichigo,'_ Ossan pointed out to her, trying to help. Ichigo closed her eyes and let the blut on her left wrist drop. Blood began to drip down her fingers, but she ignored it as the vein pattern traced itself up her right arm to where blood had started dripping from where the shackle had cut into her. The blood glowed blue briefly before sharpening and slicing through the shackle in one clean move. As the chain clanked against the wall, Ichigo once again forced the blut in her left wrist to activate as it was the worse off of the two.

' _What now?'_ she asked silently.

' _Run.'_ Ossan answered, ' _Remember that he called for Aizen,'_

Ichigo heeded his advice and did just that. Her legs felt weak as she stumbled forward, trying to give out on her in protest for not using them. However, she didn't have time to let her legs give out. She merely used the pain to her advantage as incentive to get away from the madman who she was certain already knew of her escape. Cautiously, she pushed the reatisu towards her legs to attempt a shunpo. The pain was greater than what had happened already, but she pushed it away. If she didn't shunpo…

Before she could complete that thought, something snagged her hair, yanking her back and almost snapping her neck with the force. Her feet slid out from under her and she fell. Her eyes met that of Aizen Sosuke a moment later.

"Aizen…" she forced out, trying to hide the terror growing inside of her.

"Kurosaki-san," he returned, politeness still one of his tenants despite how monstrous he was, "Leaving so soon?" She growled in response, assessing how hard she had fallen and if she could make it out of there on her own or not. "And here I was hoping you would join me for a cup of tea when I heard the news…" She could hear the scathing undercurrents in his voice, as well as the joy in his reatisu. That's when it hit her. From what her father had said before they had gone into training for Mugetsu… She could still feel Aizen's reatisu. The others hadn't been able to then. While her powers were severely diminished and she had struck what would've been a fatal blow for anyone else in existence, he still had the hogyoku. And she could still feel his power.

The anger that had been building inside of her suddenly burst forth and she climbed to her feet to stare Aizen down. Ossan and Shiro felt the reatisu inside of her stirring and kept the reins tight to keep it from spilling everywhere. Syzael's experiments had definitely worked more than what they had previously thought and the power began to leak anyways. Shiro kept nervously glancing towards the canyon in the inner world, expecting something to burst forth at any given moment from the darkness that had gathered there.

"Aizen…" Ichigo repeated, all of the indignity and fear of the past few months coming to the forefront of her mind, "You… You've done so much wrong!" She felt as if she should be shouting but all she could force out was a whisper. "You've hurt so many people and killed so many more…" Aizen raised an eyebrow at the former substitute, wondering what on Earth she was trying to do. The two stood there for a moment before Ichigo stepped back, raising one arm out to the side. The shadows in the canyon burst forth at the same time as her reatisu as she spoke.

"Bankai. Shikage (Death Shadow) Tensa Zangetsu." The shadows burst out around her, swathing her form and restoring the traditional robes of her bankai. They continued on to manifest the blade of Zangetsu and a crown of Obsidian sat on her hair, sending the color down along the no longer quite so vibrant orange locks, turning them the same color as the blade of darkness and pulling them down to the length they had stood for Mugetsu right behind her knees. Her eyes brightened to the same crimson red. Although she did not take on the bandages or the power of the Saiga no getsuga tensho, her reatisu shot up, apparently recovered in one fell swoop from the indignity, anger, and pain her soul went through.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... I know I said I would update Thursday, but I left my laptop at a friend's house and didn't have the files up on doc manager yet... But things are getting exciting now, yeah? Bit different and we are getting to all of the scary parts now.**

AnonymousGuest: **Thank you for the review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I really hope to hear what you think of what I did with this chapter as well.**

Guest: **Thank you for your kind words. I'm hoping my story won't be what suffers next time I have issues as this is something I actually enjoy doing. I started working on drabbles for this story at the beginning of my freshman year of college and I enjoy working on it and connecting to those scenes I wrote so long ago. Please let me know what you think of this chapter!**

 **Ok guys, I hope you enjoyed and I will write to you again on Thursday! (For real this time.)**

 **Also I hope everyone had a great New Year's Day!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Aizen reared back, his own reatisu flaring in response to the sudden and unexpected change from the woman in front of him. The hogyoku pulsed brightly in his chest and his reatisu soared higher. Ichigo's went higher still in response to his own.

After a single heartbeat, the two leapt forward. Aizen held no sword, but instead his arm sharpened itself into a blade as the hogyoku sensed the threat. Before Aizen could do much more than raise his arm to block the former daiko's blade, Ichigo was swinging forward a second blade, a much smaller trench knife that she took right to his throat. Aizen ducked back, feeling the blade do a little more than nick the skin. One hand automatically went to his throat, trying to stop the bleeding. The hand did little good and blood dripped down his chest, staining the white uniform red.

Ichigo was at it again a moment later, holding the two blades as if she'd wielded two swords her entire life. Desptie how much more training and experience the older soul had, he wasn't able to keep up with the physicality of the young woman's fighting.

"Bakudo #81 Danku!" The shield didn't give him long to recover, she was around it in seconds, but those seconds gave him time to think. Bakudo shields were layered all around him in quick succession while he began the full incantation for the strongest hado he possibly could.

"Hado #99, Goryutenmetsu!" he finished, just as Ichigo broke through the last danku. The dragon rose above the two of them and the creature of Earth and reatisu dove down after the woman, chasing her down and trying to pin her in place. Despite the pain from the shunpo tearing apart her legs even further, Ichigo shunpo'd forward, evading every attack from the creature of kido behind her.

"Getsuga…" she growled, raising her blades together in an X behind her, "Tensho!" The blast shot through the dragon, killing off the kido and continued on to Aizen. He managed to dodge it and fire off a handful of the lower hado spells, keeping her on her feet the whole time. Ichigo growled and finally managed to get close enough to Aizen to cut him again, this time on the side of the neck. Aizen stiffened in disbelief even as he ducked away from her blade. The wound wasn't healing. Unlike before, where the hogyoku had managed to start the regeneration almost immediately, this time the gem wasn't pouring any energy into closing the wound at all.

Ichigo took advantage of his momentary surprise and slashed forward, this time with the trench knife and this time completely separated his head from his neck. For a moment, his empty eyes stared back at her in shock before the awareness faded. His head hit the floor a fraction of a second before Ichigo did.

She was conscious, barely. The sound of Aizen's headless body hitting the ground was lost on her, as was the bright flash of violet light around her. However, the flash of reatisu as the gem rose up from the corpse beside her was not lost. Exhausted, she looked up as the hogyoku started to float towards her.

' ** _Kouhi!_** ' Shiro shouted from in her inner world, ' ** _Move!_** ' Ichigo didn't wait to hear that twice. She leapt to her feet and began shunpoing. However, the deadly creation gained ground on her with every step she took until finally it hit her back. Her now unconscious form skid through the halls of Las Noches, sending rubble flying everywhere as she slammed into a few walls before skidding to a stop. Abruptly, the black of her hair shattered, leaving only the orange behind as her blades disappeared once more. Had her eyes been open, they would've been back to the standard amber once again.

"Die!" Had Ichigo been expecting any word in particular from the calm-headed Ossan, that would not have been it. She dragged her weary eyelids open to see the older portion of her zanpakuto/representation of her Quincy heritage flash past her. A purple light was glowing all around her and she found she couldn't really move. Wearily, she dragged her head up from where it was hanging to take in the rest of the scene in front of her.

Shiro flashed past her with a nameless Getsuga Tensho, chasing after Ossan who was chasing after… Something else. A dark creature was fleeing from the two spirits towards the new addition to her inner world. Ichigo felt dread sore up into her throat, choking her into silence at the thought of that thing down in the void that called to her so.

She couldn't really make out a form on the shadowy creature, only violet eyes that pierced out from the shroud as it glanced back towards… Her. The thing was looking at her, no longer at the defenders of her soul. She began to struggle then, realizing that she was once more bound up in chains. The… The hogyoku, she realized what the creature was finally, began racing back towards her, avoiding the spirits and instead crossing the distance to her far faster than should have been possible.

She made one last violent effort to free herself before the cloud enshrouded her where she hung.

 _What is it you desire…_ a whispy voice called to her through the darkness, _What pain do you hide that I can soother? That I can ease…_ Something moved around her and she jerked away from it, trying to escape in futile struggles. _I can grant the heart's darkest desire… What you wish for more than anything else…_

"Why are you here?" she asked weakly, finally giving up on her struggle, "You already took away everything dear to me when you bonded with that monster…"

 _He was no monster…_ the voice answered, _he sought out what was best for mankind…_

"He killed so many people and tried to wipe my hometown off the map!" Ichigo snapped back,

 _To rewrite the rules of existence is a heavy task indeed… He took the path of least bloodshed, I assure you…_

"That doesn't make it ok!" Ichigo answered.

 _I see you will still not speak with me as I wished…_ the hogyoku responded to her _That is alright… I have other ways to see into your heart…_ The mist condensed around her, pushing down and pushing all of the world down into her and condensing down into a second skin all around her.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **so... apparently Thursdays are NOT my day... sorry I'm late again guys! In my defense, I've been getting ready for a con. If anyone happens to be going to ohayocon tomorrow, give me a shoutout! PM me and maybe we can meet up! So, bit different. In my eyes, the hogyoku is a sentient being as it is able to determine the heart's desires and all that.**

 **Also, this change and all the time in her inner world has changed Ichigo's blades as she has come to a truer understanding of herself. So for her bankai as of now, she has her blade from her original bankai with a small cutout and a slightly smaller version of the trench knife from the shikai.**

 **Also sorry, if there are any typos or issues in the A/N, I'm posting this from my phone, so... anyways, if anyone is going to Ohayocon let me know!**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Ossan and Shiro were there suddenly, reaching into the mist that had yet to condense.

"Die you bastard!" Shiro shouted, pouring her energy into a cero that seared off the power of the hogyoku.

"Die!" Ossan shouted again, as he did earlier. The telltale blue energy of the Quincy arrows shimmered out from Ossan's hands to injure the hogyoku's manifestation as well.

The lights shone against that of the hogyoku. The mist of the despicable gem rose up in protest and separated from Ichigo, leaving her panting and trembling where she hung. Shiro and Ossan poured all of their energy into their various attacks and the hogyoku shook once before exploding into a rain of violet energy. The remnants flowed down towards the crimson river and Ossan was once again after them. Ichigo had never seen her elder spirit with such horrible vengeance for anything, living or dead. Blue arrows rained down, completely obliterating the mist while Shiro charged the largest cero she'd ever created, including while in her maddened possession of Ichigo against Ulquiorra.

"Ichigo!" Ossan shouted, "Someone's reatisu is getting closer!"

"I can't move!" she called back, still struggling against the chains suspending her in midair. Ossan responded by shooting a few arrows back at her. They sizzled against the metal, slowly burning holes through the constraints. Finally, they broke and she fell to the ground. Wasting no time, she pulled herself out of her inner world.

Quickly, she realized that it was Grimmjow's reatisu closing in on her. She pushed the pain back and leapt to her feet, shunpoing away. It was the first time she had done long distance shunpo in who knew how long. She realized she didn't know how long she'd been in Hueco Mundo. She had no clue.

Grimmjow's energy was getting even closer to her and she pushed whatever she had left into moving forward. She made it out of Las Noches and was running through the sand. With every step she took, she moved farther forward, dragging herself along and trying to keep from collapsing where she stood. In the distance, she saw a smaller hollow opening a garganta.

Ahead of her, the portal was slowly closing. With the last of her conscious ability, she _moved_. Whether it was shunpo or sonido, she didn't care and she doubted her inner spirits did either. She barely made it, well, most of her did. She could feel the weight from the back of her head disappear. If she had the ability to process it, she would guess that her long hair was now very short. However, every inch of will power was forcing her forwards at speeds she was unable to process.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of darkness, the light shone in front of her. The sun fell on her pale skin, warmth unexpected. She fell back to normal human speeds, unable to keep up the speed of the movement.

"I… I'm _home._ " Slowly, she limped and stumbled her way towards the Kurosaki Clinic. Unfortunately, the garganta had opened on the wrong side of the town. She had no energy to gripe though, she was grateful to be gone from that hell.

Ossan and Shiro finally managed to put down the last bits of the hogyoku within her soul, relishing in the joy of being _home._

She kept going, slowing as her path grew shorter. Halfway across the town, she collapsed. Within her soul, Ossan had been keeping half an eye on her progress. He released the last bit of her power to send up a spiritual flare. Anyone worth mentioning would feel it. He could only hope that they would recognize it after so long.

The vial in his hand dropped to the floor, shattering and sending acid splashing everywhere.

"…Ichigo?" he asked, eyes wide and clearly visible under the lack of striped hat. Moments later, he was out in the front of the shop, only to be caught be his assistant.

"Kisuke," the large man murmured, "We don't know if it's her. Aizen could be using her as a trap. Remember what was happening as she was taken!"

"I don't care!" the man returned harshly, taking Tessai by surprise with the ferocity of his struggle. Urahara was out of the front of the shop a moment later.

"Stay here!" he yelled to Ururu and Jinta as he took off after Kisuke. After a moment, his gigai fell to the ground. Moments later, he passed Kisuke's gigai as well. Already, people were beginning to gather around it, but Tessai didn't have time to hide the false bodies from view and wipe their minds. He would deal with the repercussions later.

"Ichigo!" Urahara called, shunpoing as quickly as possible to the location of the barely detectable reatisu spike. It had been strong for only a moment, but now was dying out, rapidly. It was almost as if… He pushed himself faster. However, he was not prepared for the sight that met his eyes.

Her body lay, broken on the pavement, blood seeping onto the cement around her. What was once long, beautiful hair was now cut brutally short, as if someone had grabbed her locks and sheered them all with fire. Her clothes were ripped up and down her back, blood caking the cloth to lash wounds. Quickly, he dropped to his knees. Her blood soaked into his hakama, but he paid it no mind. Ever so carefully, he rolled her onto her back to see where all of the blood was coming from. The lash wounds were severe, but they were dry and closed over with infections.

"…Ichigo!" he was stunned. Her wrists… There was no skin there. Muscle showed in some places, but the majority of her flesh was gone from halfway down her forearms to the ball of her thumb. It reminded him of the wounds of someone struggling against shackles. However… It went much higher up her arms than should be expected from that.

Tessai appeared behind him at that point and forcibly pushed past Kisuke. Carefully, he began to cast a complicated kido. Urahara watched in silence, horror fighting with fury in his soul. After several tense minutes during which each second seemed to be hours, Tessai had finished with the basics of his kido.

"I can't heal her, Kisuke," Tessai murmured, reatisu reserves already beginning to strain from the multiple diagnostic and healing kido he was running on the girl, "We need Retsu-san." Urahara nodded, ever so slowly, forcing both the horror and rage to take a back seat. Right now, the best thing was a rationale mind.

"Is she stable enough to transport back to the shop?"

"Unfortunately, no. Several of her internal organs are failing and I fear extensive movements may make healing her wrists impossible."

"Alright. Stay with her. I'll be back." He took off in the fastest shunpo he could manage back to the Shoten. Quickly grabbing one of the denreishinki he had on hand, he dialed a number and prayed.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **I'm posting on time! Be proud of me! This is the first time in like two months! I'm proud of me! You can't pitchfork and torch me! Well, you could, but I hope you won't!**

 **So, Ichigo finally escaped from Hueco Mundo! She made it back to the world of the living and Urahara finally is in the picture! I've had at least one person egging on commentary about Urahara breaking Ichigo out of Las Noches. So... Yeah. He didn't end up breaking her out, but he did find her and so now Urahara is calling Unohana in for backup on Ichigo.**

AnonymousGuest: **I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Please let me know what you think of this one as well!**

Andrey258: **Well, Ichigo is very distrustful of the hogyoku as it helped Aizen do horrible things. I know in the past you've suggested Grimmjow bust Ichigo out and I just wanted to let you know that he is not out of the picture just because Ichigo has broken out. I'm glad you liked the last chapter**

 **So the story is by no means done, but this is the end of this particular arc. I hope you all keep reading and let me know what you think! Write to you next Thursday!**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Two short hours later, Ichigo was in intensive care with Unohana in the fourth squad while both Tessai and Urahara were being treated for reatisu deprivation. A loud argument rang out from outside of the facility as many shinigami attempted to push their way inside. Members of the eleventh had been deployed to guard the entryway, but they too had their doubts.

"Yumichika," Ikkaku murmured, drawing towards the entrance away from the crowd, "I'm gonna go see what's going on in there."

"Are you sure that's wise?" the feminine male replied, raising one feathered eyebrow.

"Somebody's got to," he replied, "After all, we're getting reports that the Urahara dude found Ichigo."

"Alive?" Yumichika gasped.

"Barely. Apparently he and that former kido master worked themselves to exhaustion. I heard one of the fourth squad members talking about it earlier."

"Then by all means, lead the way." Ikkaku snorted at how easily Yumichika agreed to abandon their 'duty' and quietly snuck away from the rest of the officers and unseated members of their squad.

"You know… I'm honestly shocked that she's alive…" Ikkaku murmured as they began to infiltrate the fourth. "I mean, I know she's strong. I've _seen_ her fight. But… What with that last attack against Aizen… I'd heard the captains saying that her soul was ripping itself apart because she sacrificed her zanpakuto for that form."

"You mean… You mean that she had to do _that_?"

"Yeah." They remained silent, sneaking around corners, peeking behind doors for any sign of orange. However, before they made it much farther, a soft tut met their ears. They spun around to see Isane glaring them down.

"Unohana-taicho ordered that all other squads be kept _out_ of the fourth. I know that none of them have gotten past your excellent guard as of yet, so what are you doing in our hospital?"

"We…" Ikkaku stuttered, taken aback by the forcefulness of the woman in front of him.

"We wanted to check on Urahara-san and his companion," Yumichika stepped in smoothly, "We heard that they were both suffering from reatisu deprivation. As such, we were going to volunteer our reserves as seated officers. I imagine that the fourth squad members need to conserve their energy for as long as possible." Isane looked the pair up and down for a long moment before letting out a sigh and leaning against the nearest wall. Alarmed, Yumichika took a step forward as the vice-captain began sliding down the wall to the floor.

"Are you alright?!" he asked, suddenly taking in the sweat behind her bangs and the slight shaking of her forearms.

"It's so horrible," she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself, "Even for the things we've seen… Even compared to the damage those espada inflicted…"

"What is?" Ikkaku asked, stepping forward as Yumichika took a seat to comfort the woman.

"Kurosaki-chan's wounds…" she murmured, tears beginning to leak down her cheeks.

"Isane fuku-taicho," Yumichika interrupted, hand on Isane's shoulder, "Are you suppressing your reatisu at all?"

"…" she stayed silent, head bowed. Yumichika looked up and mouthed 'reatisu exhaustion' at Ikkaku. He nodded and leaned down on Isane's other side. The pair picked up the lieutenant of the fourth and headed for a room with an empty bed. "I'm fine…" she protested weakly.

"Like hell you are," Ikkaku snapped, glaring sideways at her, "You're weaker than an unseated officer right now. You need to go lay down for a while."

"But… Unohana-taicho…"

"Will be fine," Yumichika cut her off, "We may not know anything about healing kido, but we _can_ provide the reatisu she needs to keep going."

"O…Okay…" Isane said, giving in. Ikkaku pushed the door open with his free hand to find Urahara sitting up on a bed looking back at him. The man looked on only for a moment before standing to allow them to lay Isane on the bed.

"You should be laying down," she muttered, weakly pulling at Urahara's sleeve.

"You need it more," he responded, "Retsu may need you again later and rest is the only way she'll let you return to that room." She nodded again and drifted off in the next few moments. Tessai was in the bed on the other side of the room, still unconscious. Urahara nodded towards the hallway and the other two began to follow him out.

He stayed quiet as the group walked on, searching for an empty room. They found one surprisingly quickly and Urahara quickly claimed the only chair in the room, leaving Ikkaku to sit down against a wall and Yumichika to stand beside him.

"I'd imagine you have some questions," Urahara muttered, eye closing on their own in absence of his hat to cover his face. He'd lost on the way through the dangai.

"A few, yeah," Ikkaku answered, leaning Hozukimaru's sheath against the wall on the opposite side to Yumichika.

"You found Kurosaki-san?" Yumichika asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yes," Urahara answered, "Well, it's more like she found us. She made her way through a garganta and started heading for what we assume was the Kurosaki Clinic. When she couldn't make it any farther, she flared her reatisu before passing out."

"What happened to her?" Ikkaku asked, concerned about her state of being.

"…Torture." Urahara said darkly, "Cruel… Her wrists are little more than bone from her hands to halfway up her forearms." Yumichika shuddered, thinking about the aesthetic of such an appearance while Ikkaku merely shook his head.

"Bastards," he cursed.

"That may be the greatest understatement I have ever heard Madarame-san," Urahara agreed quietly.

"Were you… Were you still actively looking?" Yumichika asked, hesitant to bring up the topic. At the sudden slump in the older man's shoulders, both squad eleven members knew the answer before he could bring himself to open his mouth.

"I… I wanted to be," he started, hating himself with every word that came out of his mouth, "But… At this point… We… We all thought that she was… Dead." The admission to his sins against his student aloud seemed to break him and Urahara wilted in front of them. Tears slipped ever so slowly from his eyes and down his fragile cheek bones.

"Urahara-san…" Yumichika started, unable to fully form the thought he wanted to express, but wanting to give the man some level of comfort anyways. Honestly… No one had believed she was still alive. Not long after she was taken, word had finally gotten out about the Saigo No Getsuga Tensho. Isshin Kurosaki had survived his ordeal holding back the restrictive current and his wounds from his short battle against Aizen; as soon as he was physically able to go, he was called to speak with the Soutaicho.

He had revealed the truth of the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho to the man. At that time, shinigami were constantly barraging the Soutaicho with requests to scour the world of the living to search for her or to conduct raids on Las Noches. All were denied. They continued on for a few weeks before the Soutaicho revealed that it was likely that her soul was no longer even intact.

"I'm a failure," Urahara admitted, looking down, "I could've fought harder or… I could've launched efforts around the Seretei…"

"No you couldn't have," Ikkaku muttered, "Everyone was too scared. We all thought she was dead and Aizen was merely preparing for another strike. We still don't know what happened to the bastard."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... I'm posting on late again, look at me. (Not by much this time though! Less than half an hour late...) You should all be proud of me though, I adult-ed today. I had a job interview today, so I'm kinda proud of that. It went pretty well. Not sure I'll get the position I was aiming for, but you know, no biggie. The interviewer really liked me though!**

 **Anywho, Ichigo is finally returned to the Seretei! Urahara's guilt is finally laid bare for the world to see! Well, the world of web. Does that count?**

 **REVIEW REPLIES**

Andrey258 **: I'm glad you liked the emotion of the last chapter! I hope this chapter carried through on that!**

 **Thank you to anyone who followed, favorited, and/or reviewed! I love hearing what you guys think of my plot and how you think the story should progress! Please let me know what you think! Have a great week!**


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Orihime shot up in bed, hair tangled every which way around her head. She scrambled to her feet, blankets tumbling everywhere and promptly crashed to the floor. Ignoring the urge to nurse her now aching head, she instead sprang to her feet and ran out the doorway. Moments later she passed through the stairway to the ground floor and burst out the door of the building.

Halfway down the street, she realized that she was barefoot and that she'd left the door to her apartment wide open. She ran faster. It didn't matter. That sensation… That reatisu… It was Kurosaki-chan. Her foot sliced itself open on the asphalt of the street, but she pressed on, noticing the reatisu of the others flare up in response to what she'd felt.

* * *

Uryuu jolted in bed, his head sharply colliding with his headboard as a faint reatisu pushed its way into his consciousness. It was one that hadn't been home in a long time.

"Ichigo…" he sat up, pulling on his shoes and pulling on a jacket. He had to get to Orihime, he had no idea what state the other girl would be in when he got to her. In the distance, he sensed Urahara and Tessai zeroing on the location of the slight reatisu spike. Unfortunately, the reatisu was dying down far too rapidly for his taste. He frowned and ran down the hallway of his house to the front door. Standing outside the door of his own room stood Ryuuken, standing there with cold eyes, watching him go. Uryuu ignored him, not bothering to even nod in his father's direction. He had more important matters to attend to.

* * *

Chad sat up in bed, moving to slip on his shoes without pause. He locked the door to his apartment behind him and setting off into the night-time air before even bothering to reflect on what he'd felt. The city was silent around him as he sprinted through the streets towards the dying sputter of reatisu that should've been a beacon of warmth. Ahead of him he could feel the others begin to approach her faster than he could.

Chaos reigned in the silence for the spiritually aware of Karakura Town. He felt Uryuu meet up with Orihime as Urahara and Tessai converged on her dying powers. Panic shot through every reatisu and he could feel Kurosaki-san's flare as well as his other daughters. Those three would be the slowest of the bunch. Chad pushed faster, knowing he was the farthest away from her location.

* * *

The senkaimon of the medical team closed just as Orihime and Uryuu ran up, seeing the backs of the shinigami. Orihime jumped out of Uryuu's arms, pushing forwards despite the risk to try and catch that glimpse of orange and skin that seemed far, _far_ too pale to belong to someone that could be called 'living'.

"Inoue-san," Uryuu said, catching her wrist to stop her, "You can't go through the senkaimon." His tone of voice was flat, showing no emotion whatsoever despite the loathing towards the shinigami for not knowing to wait for them.

"But…" she half pulled away, but the doorway closed softly, fading from reality the next instant, "But she needs us…" The wind blew around them, catching at their clothing and hair as it set in. That had been Ichigo.

Orihime dropped to her kneed and Uryuu did nothing to stop her as the first tears started to fall.

"They should've…" she began, trying to fight the overwhelming sorrow racking through her tears, "They should've waited… I could've… I could've…" Orihime couldn't finish her sentence, instead hyper-focusing in on how Ichigo's reatisu had dropped to practically nothing as they had been mere blocks away.

"Those damn shinigami…" Uryuu said, focusing on the rage rather than the strange mix of relief and fear mixing in his stomach. The two stayed there in silence minus the sound of tears mixing with the ground water from the rain earlier that day as they waited for Chad and the remainder of the Kurosaki family to arrive at the scene.

* * *

Chad came first, reatisu firing in minute pulses in time with his breath. He took a short look around and stayed silent, not pressing the other two for answers. He had faith they would explain where their friend had gone.

After a minute or two of silence, the Kurosaki twins came into view, their father immediately behind the pair.

"Where's Onee-san?!" Yuzu cried, breaking the silence of the night air, "We felt her! She was here!"

"Where's Ichi-nee?" Karin asked at the same time. The three finally stopped a few feet away from the rest of the group and they, along with Chad, looked to Uryuu to explain. No one wanted to push the auburn haired princess who was already crying her heart out.

"We-" Uryuu gestured at himself and Orihime- "Arrived just in time to see the medical team of shinigami taking her in through a senkaimon."

"She was so pale…" Orihime muttered, "Just like Ulquiorra…" Uryuu was at her side instantaneously, as was Chad.

"Ulquiorra is gone," Uryuu assured, as Chad placed a silent hand on her shoulder, "And Ichigo will be fine. We'll get Urahara to get us into Soul Society and then you can work on her."

"You mean you saw her?" Isshin asked, his first words of the evening/early morning trembling ever so slightly.

"We caught a glance," Uryuu answered cautiously, looking up at the man, "But the shoji doors closed just as we got close enough to pick out details."

"But she's alive…" the whisper was full of so much relief as Isshin fell to his knees, tears pouring down his face. "After so long… I thought…" The twins collapsed next to their father, equally as distraught while Isshin tried to pull himself back together. After several moments, he finally looked back up to the older teens.

"I'll go to Seretei, see what's going on. If I sensed it right, Kisuke was with her. I'll be back by morning with news. Take care of Yuzu and Karin. Help yourselves to anything in the kitchen; wait at the clinic." Isshin pulled out a gikongan before anyone had a chance to answer and swallowed, ejecting himself out of his gigai.

"Listen to them," he instructed the fake soul, pointing back to Uryuu, Chad, and Orihime, "I'll be back in a few hours. The fake soul nodded and Isshin pulled the whole group into a large hug before turning to leave, summoning the shoji doors with Engetsu. "I'll be back soon," he reiterated, "Take care."

He was gone a few moments later.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **Sorry guys, I didn't mean to fall off the face of the Earth again. I had to deal with a bit of an issue with anxiety and just completely lost motivation to write or really read much of anything. I have been trying to get back into this and I have other things written for the next chapter, but a lot of this is an empty spot in my head and I don't know what I'm going to do.**

 **So, I apologize for not updating and I will try to do better. I don't know when I will update again. Sorry guys.**


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The shoji doors vanished behind him and Isshin set off on the fastest shunpo he could manage. If he was lucky, he was only a few minutes behind the medical transport team. He couldn't do much about catching up, but he might be able to talk to some of them and figure out how badly hurt his daughter was. Transport teams were usually made up of six shinigami, he doubted they would all go into the operating theatre with Unohana, some of them would be dismissed to debriefing and if he was fast enough those were the ones that he could catch.

Unbidden, his mind flashed back to the last time he had seen his daughter. She had stood tall, freely taking on the burden of saving the world after confronting her zanpakuto. Then he had blacked out and the next thing he knew had been waking up among the rubble of the fake Karakura Town to see Urahara silently treating the wounds he had sustained and trying to reverse some of the reatisu deprivation from keeping the walls of the dangai still for so long.

 _"_ _Ki…suke…" he forced out, eyes staring blearily up at the blonde hair going every which way instead of being concealed under his usual green and white stripped bucket hat._

 _"_ _Isshin," he replied, voice exhausted, not meeting the eyes of his old friend, "Save your strength." Isshin could hear his voice breaking in the unspoken words and his limited supply of reatisu jerked, spiking up in worry._

 _"_ _Where… Where's… Ichigo?" Kisuke bowed his head in silence for a long moment, his messy hair covering his eyes and overshadowing most of his face. A single tear dripped down onto Isshin's cheek._

 _"_ _Aizen… Took her. The hogyoku was too much." Isshin felt his heart skip a beat and the world around him faded out to white. He couldn't see anything and he had no control of his reatisu as it flared wildly around them. The only thing he was even barely aware of was Kisuke's hand on his chest. Then the white faded to black and he fell into the deep abyss of unconsciousness._

Ahead of him, he could see the other side of the passage, the brightness of the senkai contrasting against the dangai. He pushed harder and flew out of the other side into the main section of Seretei, the gate closest to squad four.

He flashed past many officers, ignoring the shouts of "Hey!" and "Halt!" that echoed in his wake. He flared his reatisu in response, letting the worry in his heart ring out into the feel of his power. A few gave chase, but he was too fast for them to follow successfully. After all, he wasn't a former taicho for nothing.

Isshin finished his shunpo, falling out of near invisible speeds right in front a hassled crowd of officers disappearing into the fourth. He stayed right on their tail, watching as they disappeared ahead of him. A second too late, he saw the spot of orange hair and a forehead that was _far_ too pale for comfort. The rational side of him, the side that saw a patient going into a life-saving surgery and the side that knew stopping these people now might hurt his daughter, fell to the wayside.

Isshin surged forward, desperate to catch his daughter before the doors to the O.R. closed behind her. However, just before his hand closed around hers, someone grabbed the back of his haori, jerking him back. His hand closed around empty air.

"ICHIGO!" he shouted, trying to lurch forward again. Once more, he was jerked back. He fought against the grip, putting more force into it as the doors to the O.R. started to pull shut behind the team carrying his daughter. Still, the force or person holding him back persevered, keeping him firmly in place. When the door finally shut with a deafening finality, he spun around fury rising with his anguish in not being able to go to his daughter. Robes still whirling around him, he found Kyoraku standing there with one hand free held up in a gesture of peace.

"Retsu is not going to appreciate if you start a racket in her division, Isshin," Kyoraku commented, trying to calm the man down, "Especially when she herself is personally operating." Isshin tried to turn away from Kyoraku, not heeding his words and instead trying to rush back towards the O.R.

Kyoraku tightened his grip, and with a slight nod towards the thankful looking rank and file of the fourth division, pulled the distraught former taicho away from the halls of the fourth and instead towards his own home in the eighth. Isshin stopped struggling after Kyoraku pulled him past the gate of the fourth division. Despair weighed him down instead and he merely allowed himself to be pulled by the backs of his robes.

Kyoraku finally set the man down outside of the gate and directed him to follow silently with a small gesture. The pair walked slowly to his home in the back of the division, a small home tucked away out of the bustle of daily activities of the shinigami officers, but still close enough that they could find him in the case of an emergency. Kyoraku lead the way into his home, taking a seat at the table in his living area, closest to the doorway. Isshin made his way around the table and took a seat across from the older man.

The pair remained silent as Kyoraku prepared the tea at the small side table in the corner. He used a small shakaho to warm the water before setting it to steep in the mugs on the table between the two. Then finally, as he resettled his kimono around him, he broke the silence.

"They found her." It wasn't a question, but Kyoraku let Isshin have a chance to respond before continuing. Isshin merely nodded, eyes downcast and hands fisted in his hakama. "If she's made it this long, there's no way Retsu will fail her now."

"…You… You didn't see her…" he choked out, knowing rationally that he hadn't seen her for all that long and didn't get a chance to properly assess her, but unable to keep from pushing that away to the back of his mind, "She was so pale… Her hand was so lifeless…"

It was only Kyoraku's hand on his own that honed him in to the fact that his reatisu was spluttering like wildfire, not unlike how his daughter's did in the midst of her fury. Tears rushed to the corners of his eyes and poured down his cheeks. He couldn't do a thing.

Kyoraku sat watching him, eyes partially hooded by his straw hat for a moment before he finally took it off and set it to the side. He had no children of his own, but he could sympathize with how it felt to lose a loved one or a younger soul who you were responsible. The casualty rate in his division was low, but the long years of his captaincy still yielded the horrible result.

So the two men sat in the safety of Kyoraku's home and mourned for all that had been lost while Ichigo went under the learned hands of Retsu Unohana.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

Um... I'm not dead? Sorry to go on such a long hiatus. I've been dealing with some mental health issues and trying to fix those. I have an appointment set up for a general psychological evaluation and hopefully we can figure out what's going on. I'm also dealing with stress as I'm starting a new job in June where it'll be a management position in aquatics. I'm gonna be in charge of people. o.O While it might not seem to be that big a deal to a lot of people reading, I'm only 20 and this is my first time with that kind of title. I've been working in aquatics for four years, so I know what I'm doing, but it's also in a new facility on the other side of town and on top of that, I'm moving on Saturday. So yeah, I've been busy. I should be packing and stuff, but I wanted to get this out because it has been such a long time.

I apologize if this feels rushed. Again, I have no clue when I'm going to have time to post again. Thank you to the people who have favorited or followed this story and thank you to everyone who is still reading. Let me know what you guys think of this chapter!


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Movement flared around her as she stood, weaving healing kido after healing kido over the girl in front of her. The reatisu that should have been restored merely melted away, dying out as quickly as she could supply it for the other girl. Short commands rattled off of her tongue for her subordinates in the room and they dealt with the simpler things such as bandaging her wrists to halt the bleeding and disinfecting the marks all up and down her back. Isane stood opposite her, her tasks mirroring that of her taicho. Unohana mentally spoke with her zanpakuto, Minazuki.

 _Can we use that?_ Unohana questioned, knowing the large form of her zanpakuto's shikai would only hinder them and prevent them from reaching the patient and thinking of the alternate ability that her unique bankai offered her.

 _Our shikai would only harm the child…_ Minazuki grumbled within Unohana's mind, _but there are other options, you are correct… But our bankai would be of little use… We are not here to fight her… The battlesong of your blood has not yet began to hum…_

Unohana took note of the zanpakuto's response and shot a quick order across at her fukutaicho.

"Cease attempting to restore her reatisu and instead work on stopping the blood flow." Isane nodded quickly and shifted her focus. While healing kido without use of the reatisu restoring principle was difficult, it was not impossible and she had been learning it. Casting a quick eye across the girl, she decided to start her work on the left wrist as it appeared to be the one worse off.

The healers worked in silence amidst the hustle of the room, with the lower officers securing the patient to all sorts of diagnostic kidos which then displayed on the monitors present as a result of the twelfth division.

After a few hours, Unohana began to feel the drain on her own reatisu and looked up to see how pale Isane was as she stood across the table.

"Isane-san," Unohana murmured to get the other woman's attention.

"Hai?" Isane responsded, eyes still focused on the laceration she was currently working on across Ichigo's shoulder.

"Go rest." Isane's eyes snapped up and Unohana could hear the protest forming on her lips before it even came to fruition. "Find out how Urahara-san and Tessai-san are if you must do something, but if you remain here, you do more harm than good." Shakily, Isane nodded. After a moment of concentration, she released her kido.

The tall woman stumbled away from the table, suddenly feeling all of her exhaustion. With a shudder, she forced herself to walk away. Unohana kept the corner of her eye on the woman until she was out of the room.

* * *

Urahara leaned back in the chair in the empty room across the fourth division while Unohana continued to work on Ichigo alone. Ikkaku still sat across from him, leaning against the wall while Yumichika leaned with arms crossed against the doorway.

"I doubt Aizen would've allowed Ichigo to escape that easily from Las Noches. That man is manipulative beyond belief. Either this is a ploy to distract us, or he's dead." Urahara said, continuing their conversation.

"You really think that's possible at this point?" Yumichika asked in slight disbelief, "We all know what happened when Ichigo fought him at this point, you yourself have said that the hogyoku has made him nigh immortal."

"We simply don't have enough information at this point," Urahara murmured, forcing away his tears, "Once she awakens, we will see what she remembers." Yumichika nodded while Ikkaku looked down at the floor.

"A warrior should never be subjected to that kind of torture," he muttered, hand tracing along the hilt of Hozukimaru almost tenderly, "And that woman is a warrior if I've ever met one. This is wrong." After a moment, he turned and walked out of the room, following Unohana's reatisu to try and offer his own reserves to help heal the woman who had defeated him so long ago.

He ran into Hanataro on the way there and explained his intentions. The young man bowed, thanking him before leading him through the procedure and taking him into the room itself.

Meanwhile, Yumichika went back to the room where Tessai was still unconscious to keep an eye on Isane to ensure that the overly exhausted fuku-taicho was actually resting. Urahara remained in the empty room for some time before deciding a visit with some old friends was in order. After all, this was no natural damage to Ichigo's soul. It went much deeper than what Unohana would be able to fix on her own.

So he stood after a long moment and made his way out of the fourth. The eleventh division officers stood aside to let him pass and his presence put a halt to the shinigami who were demanding to see Ichigo. The heavy burden on his shoulders and therefore present in his reatisu put a halt to those who would otherwise continue without a thought. An ex-taicho he may be, but he still contained all the foreboding natures of a taicho who was displeased.

Once he had cleared the barrier of the fourth division, he shunpo'd the rest of the way to his destination. He arrived just as an unseated member was walking in and he slipped in through the doors undetected. Carefully, he made his way through the dark hallways where no natural light filtered through to the inner most parts of the hidden sanctuary. The shadows of this place wrapped around him, cloaking him as though welcoming back an old friend.

Silently, he slipped into his final destination in this strange place of darkness and dubious morals.

"Do you have a reason for skulking around my division," a voice began to ask as someone turned around in the large chair parked in front of the bay of monitors, "Urahara Kisuke?" Urahara looked up to see eye to eye with his old student, Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

* * *

 **AUTHORS RAMBLINGS**

 **So I got the next chapter done... I hope everyone is still enjoying reading this story! I apologize for the issues I've had with keeping to a consistent update schedule. Right now, I'm thinking I'm going to try to do every other week and if I get more written, I will try to post with more frequency.**

 **For anyone who is interested, I mentioned some issues I was having at the bottom of last chapter with mental health. I did go to a psychologist for a clinical evaluation and we discussed some issues relating to anxiety, depression, and ADD. If anyone that has any of these issues or just wants to help in general has any tips to help with managing schoolwork, I would really appreciate that. If not, thank you for reading this chapter!**

 **Thank you to anyone who followed/favorited this story since the last chapter! Please review, I love to hear what everyone thinks and reviews usually help me stay inspired and want to write more for this story!**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

"Ah, and here I thought I'd gotten away with sneaking into your sanctuary!" Urahara chirped, smiling at Kurotsuchi. He snorted in reply to the ex-taicho.

"I have made many improvements since you left this dreary place," Kurotsuchi snapped, insulted, "As if a mere intruder such as yourself would ever go unnoticed here. Unlike _you_ , I value knowing with whom I am about to be insulted. Now, for what reason have you invaded my sanctum?"

"What makes you think I have a reason?" Urahara chirped again, smiling as gayly as ever.

"Because," Kurotsuchi growled, annoyed that he needed to spell it out for the other. As simplistic as the other man acted at times, Kurotsuchi was well aware of the intellect of his rival. This act was merely a ploy in order to get him to admit something he did not wish to share with the other, "You would not infiltrate into the heart of my division without a reason." The smile on Urahara suddenly turned predatory.

"I suppose you are correct. However… This is not simply a matter of an act of charity… It is an opportunity to study the composition of a dying soul…" Kurotsuchi felt his eyebrow twitch.

"It is the case of the daiko in which you wish my assistance then." Mayuri stated, unhappy.

"Of course," Urahara replied, still putting on his happy façade, "Think of the wealth of knowledge that you can acquire through this… The chance to study a decomposing soul… A broken link between soul and zanpakuto[A/N1] … One that the Soutaicho will approve of… In fact, he may even reward you for your work, allow you more laboratory space… More leeway when suggesting Seretei funded experimentation or perhaps allowing first pick of any potential candidates from this crop of graduates from Shino Academy…"

As much as Kurotsuchi hated to admit it, the offer was certainly tempting. More public funding in place of the private fortunes he poured into his work… And the opportunity for the Soutaicho to lift the stern hand he kept over the twelfth division. Not that those limitations had ever stopped him from exploring a concept he was truly curious about, but lifted sanctions would lessen the headache it would take in order for him to find competent assistants…

While Kurotsuchi was thinking over the proposition, Urahara allowed the happy façade to drop from his face. He would not allow his former student to die; he couldn't. She had given up too much, all with his assistance, for him to let it end like this. He would do everything he could to prevent that. However, his lab in the living world was not enough to find a solution to a problem of this magnitude. He required more intensive equipment and as much as it might sting his pride, a partner who was at least as well informed in these matters as he was.

After some time, Kurotsuchi finally agreed to assist him and the two set to work.

* * *

Unohana continued to work as best she could on the otherwise dying girl. Officers came and went, depleting their reatisu until they could no longer help. Lesser souls would have collapsed long ago, but Ichigo's soul persisted despite the immense pain that she was in. Souls other than Unohana Retsu also would have collapsed, unable to continue their work, but she worked from a much vaster reserve of dedication and ability. She was not the captain of squad four for nothing.

After some amount of time, she sensed a presence behind her, watching her work.

"Kurotsuchi Mayuri," she said shortly, not halting the work in front of her, "I trust you are not interrupting this operation for no cause. Please do not distract my attention unnecessarily. As I'm sure even _you_ can see, this is a delicate situation."

"I have come with a solution for you," he spat back, miffed at her disrespect for his intellect, but unwilling to cross her.

" _We_ have a solution," Urahara cut in smoothly, trying to dissolve the argument before it distracted both great minds from their work.

"Do what you must," Unohana replied, still focusing on her task at hand. A thud to her left alerted her to the fact that her current source of supplied reatisu was drained to the point where the poor officer could no longer continue. "Hanatarou!" Unohana barked. The seventh seat was there moments later and the poor soul was removed in order to recuperate.

The work continued for several more hours before it was finally finished. All three captain class shinigami staggered out, exhausted when the process was finally finished. However, they had finally reversed the process of the disintegration of the daiko's soul. Unohana had been working over Ichigo for a total of three days and still the girl was not fully healed.

However, it was better to give the body time to heal as the taicho was certain the mind would require time to heal as well. After all, torture was never an easy experience. If they didn't give her mind time to catch up to her body… Well, Kurosaki Ichigo had proven herself to be an adversary to be worthy of, whether she was in her right mind or not.

Unohana guided her comrades to cots for them to spend the night and set about securing a room for the daiko, warding it with kido so that only members of the fourth squad with her express permission could enter. Stumbling, she leant into the arms of her fukutaicho who guided her to her own quarters. The procedure had been a success, so now it was time for her to rest. Isane could be trusted to look over the daiko in the meanwhile. Unohana finally laid down on her bed and closed her eyes, allowing her exhaustion to catch up with her.

* * *

Soft hands turned her head, ever so slowly shifting it this way and that. She wanted to protest, but everything felt so weak. The hands stilled and slowly the sound of quiet snips met her ears. It sounded like…

 _The hot tongs clashed together, the quiet clangs coming closer and closer to her arms…_

It sounded like scissors. She had to be very firm and believe that. It sounded like scissors. Increment by increment, she forced her eyes open. At first, everything was blurry and the only thing that stood out to her was a mop of grey, leaning over her.

"Kurosaki-san?" the grey mop asked, surprise and worry present in the tone of voice. Slowly, Ichigo's eyelids drooped again and she didn't have the strength to open them again.

She drifted, sometimes feeling as if she were awake, but just lacking the conviction to open her eyes. Other times, she was sure that Aizen had merely taken all of the lights out of the cell and that Grimmjow's fingers were inches away from her skin. However, that didn't seem quite right. When she was almost certain she was awake, there was a comforting feeling in the air around her. Something that seemed very familiar and very foreign at the same time. She could even swear that there were murmuring voices around her, ones that she should know.

On one particular instance after she wasn't sure how long, she recognized the feeling around her. Oyaji was sitting next to her. She didn't know how she didn't realize that before and suddenly she had the motivation she needed to try and pry back the weight of her eyelids.

It was dark when she finally managed to open them, but it wasn't the pitch darkness of a prison cell with no light. Instead, it was merely someplace where it was nighttime. A dark head rested by her arm and with a start she realized there were hands clamped over hers that she couldn't feel. Panic started to rise, but then she forced it back.

Panic brought a lack of control. She couldn't afford that. She couldn't let Aizen- Suddenly the whole event came crashing back and the pain suddenly flared in her wrists and her back and her soul and everything was fire around her-

And before she even realized that she was, her scream died in her throat as her oyaji woke up and saw her.

"Ichigo!" Everything was frozen for a beat. Two. Three. Then the world exploded into motion as he swept her up in his arms and held her so tightly. "Ichigo!" he sobbed, "Ichigo, Ichigo!" It seemed to be all he could say as he buried his face into her chest and clung to her so tightly she felt like she would break in half.

"H-hey…" she managed, "Why the long… face?" It was a poor time to joke. Panic was still thundering in her veins and she could feel her power roiling unevenly around her and she couldn't do anything to settle herself, but she didn't do tears. Tears weren't an option.

"Ichigo…" he sobbed again, ever so slowly loosening his hold on her. "I thought… You were…" It took some time, but he finally seemed to remember himself and let her go. "I need to… Hold on!" He was out of his chair a moment later and stuck his head into the hallway, shouting for help.

Ichigo let her eyes wonder the room and with a jolt she realized she was in the fourth division. Soul Society. She hadn't been here since… Images of the Saiga jumped through her head and she shook it, trying to clear the start to the disaster out of her head.

"Oyaji…" she said instead, letting her thoughts spiral around one question, "How long has it been?" He stilled in his efforts to get someone's attention as footsteps began to pound down the hallway outside of her room.

"Too long," he answered, "Far too long."

"Dad…" she pleaded, needing to know. He bowed his head, eyes shadowed over and haunted by all the things he should have done, could have done, but didn't do.

"Almost a year…" he admitted finally.

* * *

[A/N1]As far as Urahara knows. All he knows about is the saiga no Getsuga tensho, not that Ichigo was able to retain the bond at the cost of being able to contain reatisu or reirkyou and damaging the coils at the center of her soul.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

Um... I'm alive? I'm sorry for the delay and the time off, I've been dealing with real life and the struggle of classes while working full time and getting diagnosed with ADD on top of everything else. So I didn't keep to the every other week update schedule. I'm not going to promise I will. I don't know when I'm going to post again as I don't know when I'm going to feel well enough to.

However, I would like to give a sincere thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed this story in my absence. I might not have answered you, but I promise you all that I saw every single email from and that it made a huge difference to me. It might be only online and it might only be an interest in where this story goes, but a few people cared enough to give me feedback and let me know someone was out there. So thank you all.

On a less sappy note, this chapter is about half again as long as a form of apology for taking so long to get to this point. Thank you for still reading, please remember to review!


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

"Would have been a year in three days." Isshin continued, "We tried… But…" Ichigo was floored. She might have guessed a few months, but a year? Her sense of time had been badly altered by her stay in Las Noches. Apparently, she spent far more time unconscious than she might have guessed. Her dad continued talking, giving her all the reasons their rescue missions had failed, and all the reasons they had all but given up, but it glossed over her. She remained silent, even as a group of fourth squad officers burst into the room, led by Isane fuku-taicho who sent one of them after the taicho when she realized that Ichigo was actually awake.

The officers scurried to do their work, recording vitals, checking bandages, changing what needed to be changed and then scurried out, off to the next patient until the only people left in the room were Isane fuku-taicho and her father. After several moments of silence, a short knock on the door alerted them to the fact that there was another party waiting. When Ichigo made no move to respond, Isane softly called "Come in!"

Unohana swept into the room, a serene presence amidst her bustling division.

"Isane-san," she greeted with a nod, "Kurosaki-san." Finally she turned to rest her eyes on Ichigo. "Kurosaki-chan," she said softly, "I am glad to see that you are finally awake. Your poor father has slept on the side of that cot for three days now." Ichigo still made no move to respond, only staring blankly off to the side as feelings of dread washed over her. So much time had passed…

"Kurosaki-chan," Unohana said quietly, drawing closer to the girl, "Can you hear me?" Ichigo still didn't answer. She could fully hear the healer taicho, but being able to respond was another matter. Despondency set into her bones and it was all Ichigo could do to keep herself rooted down to where she was. Unohana continued to talk to her, trying to get the girl to respond and Ichigo couldn't do a thing about it.

Finally, Unohana rested a hand lightly on the side of Ichigo's face, shining a light into her eyes. The taicho watched as the girl's eyes dilated, relieved. She might not be answering, but she was at least conscious.

Isshin watched quietly from the foot of the bed, having walked to that post when the healers came in to stay out of their way. He might be a doctor, but it had been a long while since he had the opportunity to practice healing kido. Besides, he wasn't sure how well he would do at healing the injuries he knew were covering his little girl. The physical ones, yes, those he could probably handle. But the mental issues? Those were another beast all together.

Unohana backed away from Ichigo, taking a seat beside her bed on a stool, folding the cloth of her hakama gently so as to not trap the fabric at odd angles under her on her perch. Isane moved next to the window while her taicho reviewed the information that had been gathered. Silently, the other two responsive persons in the room waited. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Unohana set down the clipboard.

"Kurosaki-san," she said gently, addressing the sole male occupant of the room, "Was Kurosaki-chan responsive before our healers entered the room, or was she like this from the moment she opened her eyes?" The taicho saw pain flicker briefly across Isshin's eyes before he answered.

"She was responsive," he admitted, "But it was only for a few moments. She asked how long it had been and I told her how long she had been gone… Then she became very quiet, staring straight ahead just as the members of your division entered the room."

"I see," Unohana murmured quietly, "Then this is merely an issue of anxiety. She should be alright again soon. Was she prone to anxiety attacks before?" Isshin shook his head, moving to hold his eldest daughter's limp hand tightly in his own.

"No," Isshin finally vocalized his response, "No. She's always been calm, the only time I ever saw her do anything remotely like this would be when a friend had been injured or when… When Masaki…" He was unable to finish his sentence, but the message still came across strongly. "Ichigo…" he murmured, still clutching her hand, "Ichigo… It'll be okay."

While Isshin continued to murmur sweet nothings in an attempt to coax Ichigo out of her daze, Isane approached Unohana.

"Is there anything more you would like me to do for Kurosaki-chan or Kurosaki-san, Unohana-taicho?" she asked respectfully, inclining her head in a small bow to her commanding officer. Unohana pondered the question for a long moment before responding.

"No, thank you, Isane-san. Should I require anything more of you, I will send for you. For now you may resume your normal duties." Isane bowed to Unohana and to Isshin before leaving the room. As the door closed softly behind her, Ichigo seemed to jolt back to life. Her amber eyes were stretched wide open, panicked as they roved over the room in desperate search of… Something. After finding only her father and the taicho of the fourth squad, she sagged back into the pillows of the bed, chest heaving with breaths that were far too silent.

"Ichigo?!" Isshin said, worried with her violent action, "Ichigo?! Are you alright? Can you hear me?" After a long moment, Ichigo managed to nod. Isshin breathed a sigh of relief and gave the hand he was holding a slight squeeze. There was no motion back, but he knew there wouldn't be, at least not for some time to come. Unohana had already briefed him on the state of her wrists and the slow muscle regeneration.

"Kurosaki-chan?" Unohana asked gently, "Can you speak?" Isshin frowned, of course she could speak! She'd spoken mere minutes ago, hadn't she? With a sickening bout of fresh worry, he turned his eyes from the healer back to his daughter. Her eyes were closed now and she was frowning.

"Y-yeah," she said, voice strained and no longer coming out as easily as it had before, "B-but… It's ha-ard." The words seemed to catch in her throat, almost as if the muscles around her vocal chords had forgotten how to form the words. She had more she wanted to say, she wanted to ask if there'd been any sign of anyone coming after her, who had found her, were her nakama alright? Did they know she was alive? But all she could seem to do was sit there and gape uselessly like a fish.

"Ichigo," Isshin said, drawing her attention again, "It's alright, relax. We'll figure it out, but we have to take it one step at a time. Ichigo sighed and nodded her head. Finally she realized again that her father was squeezing her hand. She still couldn't feel it. Her frown deepened. Unohana, seeing where her patient was staring, chose that moment to speak up.

"Your wrists were badly damaged during your captivity," Unohana said gently. "We did the best we could, but I'm afraid it will be a long time before you will be able to use them again and you may never regain full feeling in them due to the extensive nerve damage."

Ichigo nodded again. This type of damage she could deal with. She was alive, she would use them again, she didn't _have_ to feel them to know that much. As long as her range of motion would come back, she would be fine. At least in that much, she could have hope.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS**

 **So... Yeah. I'm alive. Ichigo's alive. Huzzah. Let's hope everyone stays in their current state of let's all be alive.**

 **See you all next time, let me know what you think.**


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